


Prisoner of Azkaban

by Tay_Quin



Series: Harry’s Slytherin Sister [2]
Category: Emma Evans: The Slytherin Sister - Taylor Quinlan, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Dementors, F/F, F/M, Harry Potter has a little sister, Harry has a Slytherin sister, Hogsmeade, Hogwarts, Hogwarts Express, King’s Cross Station, Lily Evan’s daughter, M/M, Quidditch, Shrieking Shack, Werewolf, friends - Freeform, runaways - Freeform, slytherin seeker, slytherins have hearts, snape’s favorite
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:08:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 31,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24829585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tay_Quin/pseuds/Tay_Quin
Summary: Emma’s second year at hogwarts.
Relationships: Albus Dumbledore/Gellert Grindelwald, Angelina Johnson/George Weasley, Cho Chang/Marietta Edgecombe, Draco Malfoy/Original Female Character(s), Draco Malfoy/Pansy Parkinson, Fleur Delacour/Bill Weasley, Ginny Weasley/Dean Thomas, Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger/Fred Weasley, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley, James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Neville Longbottom/Luna Lovegood, Pansy Parkinson/Blaise Zabini, Ron Weasley/Lavender Brown, Severus Snape/Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Series: Harry’s Slytherin Sister [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1696795
Comments: 11
Kudos: 154





	1. Letters

This summer had been a hot one thus far.

I had spent the majority of the summer outside, in the park, thinking of my homework.

It had been locked inside of our old bedroom since the end of school. I had managed to hide my photo album from them when they confiscated everything else.

Vernon had been pissed about Emmett but I told him he could be an outdoor cat and get all of his own food. So Petunia said he could stay.

Petunia came into Harry and my room while I was looking at the photo album. She had ripped it from my hands and hissed, “Where did you get this?”

“From Snape,” I replied, “I notice that you knew him.”

“You are in contact with him?” She asked, her eyes had widened significantly.

“Yes,” I said, “He happens to be my teacher.”

“I don’t think you’ll be needing this anymore,” She said shrilly and stalked from the room.

***

But today I had an idea. Petunia seemed to fear Snape. So I was sitting in my spot in the park, writing a letter to him.

**Dear, Professor Snape**

**I hope you’re having a fantastic summer so far. Unfortunately mine isn’t going so well. Petunia has confiscated both mine and Harry’s homework and books. She also recently discovered the photo album you gave me and took that as well. So now, Harry and I cannot complete any of our homework. Do you think you could talk to her? Or write her a letter? See, the both of us would really like to do our homework.Last summer, Harry had to do his homework at school, before his classes started, and we would not like a repeat of that. I’m sure you’re asking yourself, ‘Why didn’t Harry just write to a teacher?’ The fact of the matter is that he did write a letter to Professor McGonagall, however it was intercepted by the house elf Dobby who was trying to prevent Harry from returning to Hogwarts because he had heard that the Chamber of Secrets was going to be reopened.**

**Thank you,**

**Emma Evans.**

I sent the letter off with Hedwig.

***

The very next day, Hedwig arrived with a response.

**Dear Emma,**

**I will try getting you access to your homework again. Harry’s too.**

**I’m going to your house to discuss the situation with your aunt and uncle on the seventh of July at 2:00. If possible, I will get you your photo album back as well.**

**Professor Snape**

The seventh was in three days. I decided it was best not to tell the others that Snape would be coming.

***

The seventh snuck up on me and it was already eleven in the morning when I realized that Snape would be coming today.

I returned home from the park at one thirty, Emmett on my heels.

I wrung out my hands and took to tugging at my fingers. Emmett purred and curled up in my lap. I absentmindedly scratched behind his ears. At precisely two o’clock I heard a pop from the street. Several heart beats later, the doorbell rang. Vernon was at work, so Petunia bustled out of the kitchen to answer the door. When she opened it, she gasped.

I noticed Harry, lurking on the stairs.

“Severus,” Petunia breathed and Harry’s brow furrowed.

“Petunia,” Severus replied, his tone betrayed no emotion, “I do believe the polite thing would be to invite me in. Unless you want your neighbors to see a peculiarly dressed man standing on your front steps.”

She glared at him and moved aside. He breezed inside and entered the sitting room, “Miss Evans,” He greeted, then called, “Mr. Potter, no need to remain on the stairs, this concerns you as well.”

Harry came down the stairs cautiously and entered the sitting room as well.

Emmett leapt from my lap and wound himself around Snape’s leg, purring contentedly.

“What is the meaning of this?” Petunia asked after a long moment, her beady little eyes glaring at each of us in turn.

I could see Dudley peering in from the kitchen. He wouldn’t dare enter the room, not after his last encounter with a full grown wizard had resulted in him having a pig’s tail.

“It has come to my attention that you and your husband have locked up Harry and Emma’s school books and homework. You have not been allowing them to complete any of it. Tell me, why do you feel it is necessary to lock away their things?”

“We will not tolerate any of that nonsense in our house!” She replied shrilly.

Snape’s eyes narrowed, “You hold onto your jealously well. I thought after all of this time, you would have gotten over it, but no, you are the same as you always have been. Jealous of our magic. You hate that you don’t have it, you hate that your sister did. So you’re trying to keep these kids from it. I’ll make a deal with you, you let them have their books, their work, everything they need, in their bedrooms and you’ll let them complete it. Or else, I’ll tell your husband that you wrote to Dumbledore, not one, but three times, asking to be a witch and attend Hogwarts. And I will tell him that you still want to be a witch, despite your claims to hate it.”

Harry was gaping openly at Snape and I was trying hard to suppress laughter. Petunia’s face had turned a deep shade of red, and whether it was from anger or embarrassment, I couldn’t tell.

“Fine.” She ground out.

“You won’t be offended if I don’t take your word on it. It would be best to let them retrieve their things now.” Snape said silkily.

Stiffly, Petunia left the room. I stood and followed her, as did Harry and Snape.

She walked to our old broom closet and unlocked it. “Get your things then.” She hissed, her voice dripping venom.

Harry and I hurried forward and began gathering up our things. It soon became apparent that we would need to make two trips. With as many books as we could carry, we teetered up the stairs, then went back and grabbed up the rest.

I rushed back down the stairs after the second trip to find Snape holding two photo albums. One was the one Hagrid had given Harry and the other was the one Snape had given me. He handed them to us.

“Thanks,” I whispered. He merely nodded and offered up a small smile.

“Now, I’ll remind you that Emma and Harry can contact me at any time. So I will know if you take away their things again. And the ministry only punishes magic preformed with a wand, so don’t think I won’t find out.” Snape snapped, “I will see the two of you at the start of term, and I hope to never see you or your overlarge son again.” Without another word, he swept from the house and disapparated moments later.

Petunia rounded on us, “Room! Now! Do that homework that it was so important for you to get!”

Harry and I didn’t need to be told twice. We bolted up to the bedroom and closed the door behind us. As soon as it was closed, I doubled over laughing. I was unable to speak for several minutes. When I had finally gathered myself, Harry was glaring at me.

“Sorry,” I gasped out.

“You didn’t seem surprised by his visit.” Harry said accusingly.

“Well I was the one who wrote to him.” I explained, sobering up enough to quell my giggles, “And he said he would talk to her.”

“How did he know that stuff, about Petunia?” Harry asked, crossing the room to sit on the bed.

“He lived near her when they were kids.” I explained.

“Right, well we don’t know how long we’ll have with this before Petunia takes it away again, so best to get started on it.” He said, gesturing to the books strewn about the room, where they had been carelessly thrown in our haste.

I nodded and together we began reorganizing and sorting through to find our respective work.

***

Much to my pleasure, after the whole fiasco with Snape, Petunia had neglected to lock up the cupboard. This allowed Harry and I to sneak our brooms away while she was in the kitchen arguing with Vernon about allowing us to do our work. She had been adamant that we be allowed to complete it. Petunia really did not want Vernon to know her secret, didn’t want him to know her obsession with magic.

We waited several days before risking it. And then we were off, grabbing our brooms and swiftly exiting the house. We did our best to conceal them as we walked towards the park.

My heart was racing, I was terrified that we would be caught and then we would be done for.

But we made it without incident. No one else ever came to this park, at least not that I ever saw. Once we were a couple miles down one of the trails, I finally deemed it safe enough for us to start flying.

I had forgot how good it felt to fly. It was so freeing. I did a few laps, weaving in and out of the trees. Then Harry and I began to practice together. We started to throw things into the air, and race to catch them.

Before I knew it, the sun was setting and we were forced to go back home.

We fell into a routine of sorts. Fly all day, do homework in the evening, sleep, wake up and do it again.

After three weeks, all of our homework was finished and we were able to spend all of our time flying in the park.


	2. Unwelcome Visitor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow! I’m surprised this book has already gotten so much attention!

“Hey Aunt Petunia,” I said, one morning during breakfast. Harry had made it, of course. He did all the cooking, I did the cleaning.

“What ? ” She barked.

“Harry and I need our permission slips signed for school.” I began.

“So?” She said, “Why would I involve myself in your school at all?”

I knew it would come to this, “Well, I wouldn’t want to accidentally slip and tell Vernon your little secret.” Was this blackmail? I was pretty sure it was, and I was positive I didn’t care.

Her beady eyes narrowed, “Go get the slips then, you wretched little girl.”

I ran up the stairs to collect them and then went right back down. The sooner this was done, the less time she had to change her mind. I slapped them down in front of her and she began to read.

“What is Hogsmeade?” She asked. 

“It’s the village near my school.”

“Why would you go there?”

“There are restaurants and stuff.”

“There aren’t any shops are there? You can’t buy any of your freak things right?”

“Right, no shops.” I lied easily. 

“Good,” She said and signed the slips. 

I snatched them from the table and sprinted up the stairs, to the bedroom. Hedwig was there,  perfect . 

I snatched up a quill and a piece of parchment and scribbled a note.

** Dear, Professor Dumbledore **

** Here are the permission slips for Hogsmeade for Harry and me. They were signed by our Aunt, Petunia. Sending them ahead so we don’t lose them. **

** -Emma **

I attached the slips to the letter and tied them to Hedwig’s leg. I gave her an owl treat and sent her on her way.

I watched as she flew away. Just as I was about to close the window, I saw Draco’s eagle owl soaring towards me. I moved aside so he could soar inside and perch himself on the desk. He held out his leg for me. I was surprised he had replied so quickly, I had just sent the letter a week ago, telling him about Snape coming and being able to fly on my broom again.

I opened the letter and began to read.

** Dear, Emma **

** I cannot believe the muggles. Do you want me to come get you? I can come get you. Mother and father said it would be alright for you to move in with us. Let me know in your response. If yes, then I will need your address and if you have a working fireplace that we could connect to the floo network. I have finished my homework already so I can help you do yours. And we could fly together, you wouldn’t have to do it in the forest. I have some spare snitches, Bludgers and Quaffles that we could use. We even have two sets of goal posts. Though you would have to deal with the peacocks father insists on purchasing. We have nine of them now! He says they’re elegant. I know you have a thing about animals having names, so I took the liberty of naming them for you. Father says names are only meant for humans, I had to name our old house elf. There are six female peacocks  and three males. The females are called Anthem, Orchid, Kia, Mookie, Passion, and Bacardi. The males are Bosco, Spook and Taz. Hey, before you laugh, I never said anything about being good with assigning names. If I ever have children, I will let my wife give them their names. You’re much better with names, at least, I like the name Emmett.  **

** Draco. **

** P.S. If you come, you can’t tell my parents that I’m taking muggle studies. They think it’s a stupid class. **

I shook my head in mild exasperation. Of course he named the peacocks. And of course his parents thought that muggle studies was a stupid class. I had imagined them calling it weak and useless.

** Dear, Draco **

** I’m alright for now. I’ll let you know if something changes and I need to stay with you. Here is my address for future reference; 4 Privet Drive, Surrey, England. No, our fireplace is electric, so you couldn’t get here through the floo network. You should be able to apparate with a parent through side along apparation. Have you ever apparatedbefore? I imagine it would be like spinning through an incredibly small space. Very tight and dizzying. I think I’ll just use brooms. But maybe that’s because I’ve grow up with muggles. Anyway, I blackmailed my aunt into signing my permission slip so I can officially go to Hogsmeade with you. I think I’m going to buy myself an owl when I get to Diagon Alley this year. I hate not being able to write you unless you write to me. Speaking of birds, your father is right, peacocks are elegant. And the names aren’t terrible, but I wouldn’t recommend naming a child ‘Mookie’. I would agree, you should leave the naming to your future wife. I’m glad you like the name Emmett. I’m thinking of getting him a friend. I hate being stuck at home with just him. We’re lonely. I might get another kitten, to be his friend. But I think that my aunt and uncle might literally murder me if I come home with three pets. Perhaps I could hide them though, what do you think? I’ve finished my homework, so don’t worry about it. I’m not surprised that you’ve got everything needed for Quidditch. I would love to take you up on that offer at some point. Not yet though, okay? I hope you aren’t upset.Can’t wait to be back at school. Muggle studies is not a stupid option.But I’ll keep my mouth shut. **

** —Emma **

I tied my reply to Tully and sent him off with an owl treat.

***

It was Harry’s birthday.

I was excited to tell Harry that I had gotten his permission slip signed. Since I couldn’t go out and buy him an actual present, this was the best I could do. I hoped he would like it, all the same.

“Happy Birthday Harry!” I said when he awoke. 

He grinned at me, “Thanks.”

“I couldn’t get you a real birthday present, but I did manage to convince Petunia to sign both of our permission slips for Hogsmeade weekends.

“Brilliant!” He exclaimed, embracing me. A ministry owl landed on the windowsill, tapping the glass lightly. He glanced over his shoulder at it and then looked back to me. Harry headed down for breakfast, while I collected the Daily Prophet and paid the ministry owl.

The front page was covered mainly by a picture of a feral looking man. His charcoal hair trailed in matted clumps all the way down to his elbows, his cheeks were sunken and he wore an expression bordering manic glee. 

The headline read, “Convicted Murderer and Known Supporter of You-Know-Who, Sirius Black, Escaped Azkaban”

Sirius Black. I had heard that name before, but where?

I read through the article quickly, it provided little information that was of actual use. All I gathered was that he was the first prisoner to ever escape. He had been a Gryffindor in my parent’s year and he had been captured, just after the fall of Voldemort, when he blew a street, killing twelve muggles and a fellow wizard, Peter Petigrew. He was also listed as ‘highly dangerous’.

I set down the paper and left the room to join Harry and the Dursley’s for breakfast, only to find Sirius Black on the muggle television.

Vernon was ranting about his disheveled hair.

Without thinking, I blurted, “He’s a wizard.” All eyes turned to face me, even Harry’s. I continued, “He killed thirteen people by blowing up a street. He was friends with the- uh- man who killed our parents.” I finished lamely.

“How do you know this?” Vernon asked accusingly, as though he thought I might have helped Black escape. 

“It was in the- our newspaper.” Then something clicked, “And he’s probably going to be coming here, for Harry, so we need to be ready.”

“Why would he be coming here? Why would he care about Harry?” Petunia asked shrilly.

“Because he’s famous! For being the one to kill the guy who killed our parents!” I said, matching Petunia in pitch and volume..

The entire Dursley family guffawed at my words. Harry ran his hand through his untidy hair and silently warned me not to push the subject. Reluctantly, I let it go.

Minutes later, Vernon said, “Petunia, I had better be off then, Marge’s train will be in at ten.”

I groaned and Harry’s eyes widened minutely, as he asked, “Aunt Marge? She’s not coming here? Is she?”

Marge despised Harry and I, but especially Harry. I had always been considered ‘sophisticated’ and ‘quiet’ while Harry was ‘hotheaded’ and prone to speaking his mind. Marge tolerated me, but she openly loathed Harry. What a terrible birthday present for him.

***

Hours later, Vernon returned home, Marge right on his heels with one of her wretched dogs. I loved animals, nearly all animals, but Marge’s dogs were in their own category. They belonged somewhere with the slugs Ron had belched and the basilisk from the chamber.

Marge came bustling in, calling for Dudley. He came out in rush, knowing to expect money for his efforts. She thrust her suitcase into Harry’s arms and discreetly passed a twenty pound note to Dudley.

Moments later she was rushing off to embrace Petunia, leaving Dudley, Harry and I alone with the beast.

“Oh sod off,” Dudley said, glaring at it. It trotted from the room, following in the footsteps of its master.

Dudley and I filed into the kitchen, while Harry half carried, half dragged Marge’s luggage upstairs.

“Tea, Marge?” Asked Petunia primly. She nodded her beefy head.

Harry entered the kitchen glumly and poured Marge her tea.

“So, you’re still here, are you?” She spat in Harry’s direction. 

“So I am,” Harry spat right back.

“You will not speak to me with that ungrateful tone!” She warned. “You’d have gone straight off to an orphanage if you’d been dumped on my doorstep.”

“I would rather live there than with this lot!” He hissed, gesturing to Vernon and Petunia.

“Here we go again,” I whispered, exasperatedly to Dudley. He nodded knowingly back. It wasn’t that Harry was difficult per se, he just couldn’t control his tongue when it came to certain people. 

“I can see you haven’t changed one bit since I last saw you. I hoped school would knock some manners into you. Where is it you send him, Vernon?” Marge asked, scowling at Harry.

“St. Brutus’s Home for Incurably Criminal Boys,” Vernon answered, “And Emma goes to the School for the Musically Gifted.” Vernon’s words had just the effect he had hoped for; Marge’s attention turned to me in an instant.

“Do you now?” Marge asked, beaming as though my supposed achievement had been because of her, “And in which area are you musically gifted?”

“Er- the piano,” I said, thinking fast, “But we haven’t got one here, so I’ll be a little rusty when I get back to school.”

“Vernon, why hasn’t she got a piano?” Marge asked, fixing her stare onto her only brother.

“I- Er- We have to make sure she’s really good first, so we’re saving money now, to buy her one next summer.” Vernon mumbled.

Marge was digging in her purse, mumbling about finances wasted on Harry. Her hand came out with 200 pounds and she handed it to me. “Here you are then.” She said, uncharacteristically generous. Stunned, I took it from her. 

“Er- Thanks, then.” I said awkwardly. 

“Now, now, I’m paying you to give my Ripper a walk.” Marge said, waving off Vernon’s protests.

“That is pretty generous for walking a dog,” Petunia ground out through gritted teeth.

“It’s going towards a good cause,” Marge replied nonchalantly, “You can go now.”

“If you go with me, I’ll give you the money,” I hissed to Dudley. I didn’t want to be alone with the demon dog. Marge handed me the leash and I clipped it to his thick red collar. 

Dudley stood. “I think I’m going to go too.” Dudley said. 

At we walked out the door, I slipped him the money.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked it! Now that summer break has started, I’m going to try updating every day.


	3. The Stray

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy! Trying to post everyday! Don’t know how long I’ll manage it though. Haha.

“Why would you give me this?” Dudley asked, gesturing to the money in his large hand, “It’s not fake, is it?”

“I didn't do anything to it, if that’s what your asking. So, if it’s fake, then it was fake when Marge gave it to me. And I don’t need it. My parents were incredibly rich and they left Harry and I their entire fortune, making us rich as a result of their deaths. A couple hundred pounds is nothing to me.” I answered, not bothering to add that since it was muggle money, I would have to go through the extensive process of trading it for galleons. 

We walked in silence for a bit before Dudley asked, “What’s it like? At your school?”

My step faltered slightly from shock. Dudley had never expressed any interest in Hogwarts.

“Well, I mean, what do you want to know?” I asked.

And suddenly, it was like a damn had broken and questions began to spill from Dudley’s mouth without restraint, “What classes do you take? What are the different houses? Are there even different houses? Who’s your favorite teacher? Is your cat magic? What do you need those brooms for? Can you teleport? Can you turn invisible? What kind of spells can you do? What is the food like there? Are unicorns real? And dragons? And everything else? Oh and can you shape shift?” 

I decided it would be best to tackle each question individually, “I take a lot of different classes. There’s astronomy, potions, charms, history of magic, transfiguration, herbology, defense against the dark arts, care of magical creatures, divination, the study of non magical individuals, arithmancy and ancient runes. This year I’ll be taking astronomy, potions, defense against the dark arts, herbology, charms, care of magical creatures, divination, the study of non magical individuals, history of magic and transfiguration.

“There are four different house; Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Slytherin. You are placed into a specific house based on your personality. Ravenclaw is for the witty, intelligent, and wise. Gryffindor is for the brave, chivalrous and courage. Hufflepuff is for the patient, just, loyal and hard working. And Slytherin is for the cunning, ambitious, and resourceful. Harry is in Gryffindor and I’m in Slytherin.

“My favorite teacher is Professor Snape, he teaches potion and he’s in charge of my house.

“Yes my cat is magical. Since he is less than a year old, he has not shown any magical abilities yet, but he’ll be able to do something once he’s around two years old. He’s also going to have an extended life span.

“We can fly on the brooms. Only people with magical abilities can use them, but they’re fantastic. We have a wizards sport played entirely on brooms. I don’t explain the whole game because it’s hard to do without a field, but there are different positions. My position, yes I’m on my house’s team, my position is called the seeker. Harry plays the same position for his house.

“There are a couple of different ways to teleport. We can go through one fire place and into another fire place. We can set specific objects to teleport at a certain time and then hold onto them and teleport with them. And then we can teleport on our own once we’re seventeen.

“Yes, we can turn invisible. There is some really advanced cloaking magic that the head master can do, but other people use invisibility cloaks, I’ve never seen one of them before. 

“There’s a spell for just about everything, and people are creating more all the time. The food is extraordinary, next summer, I can bring some home for you. Unicorns and dragons are real, so are mermaids and centaurs, phoenixs, werewolves, vampires, and all sorts of other things you’ve never imagined.

“We can shape shift a bit. Like we can become animagi, meaning we can shape shift into an animal. But we can also transfigure our features, that’s really advanced though. Then there are people who are born metamorphmagi, meaning they can change their features at will.”

“People can turn into animals?” Dudley asked, perplexed, “But how?”

“There’s this whole process you have to go through before you can do it, I can’t remember the whole of it, but its incredibly challenging and dangerous. If you do it incorrectly then you could end up being half human-half animal.” I explained.

“You should become an aminagi.” Dudley mused.

“Animagi, not aminagi. And I want to, but I don’t want to end up some mutated thing. There’s no cure, if you mess it up.” I reasoned.

“How can you tell if an animal is actually a wizard?” Dudley asked.

“Well  you  can’t, because you haven’t got a wand, but there’s a spell I can do that’ll turn an animal back into a wizard if they’re an animagi.” I said. Suddenly Ripper started barking madly in the direction of some bushes.

Both Dudley and I looked in that direction and saw something moving within. I passed Ripper’s leash into Dudley’s hands and crept closer to the bush. Yellow eyes shone from between the branches. And then, as my eyes adjusted to the growing darkness, a silhouette became visible. It was a dog. A stray by the looks of him. He was so skinny, his fur matted, I could’ve counted his ribs.

“Here, boy” I called, reaching out a hand.  Please don’t be rabid. Please don’t be rabid. Please don’t be rabid.

He emerged slowly, tail between his legs, ears pinned down.

“It’s alright, come here.” I whispered, and slowly he approached me.

He sniffed my fingers, then gave a tentative wave of his tail.

“There you go,” I said soothingly. I reached out and scratched behind his ears. His tail began to whip back and forth happily. “You must be hungry, huh boy?” 

And maybe it was my imagination, but he seemed to nod.

“It’s okay Dudley, he’s friendly.” I called, over my shoulder, Dudley was still hesitant.

I stood up and walked back to Dudley, he seemed nervous. His fear seemed to only increase when the dog followed me over.

“What if it’s an aminagi?” Dudley hissed.

I let out an exasperated sigh, “Dudley, he’s a stray dog, not a wizard.”

“How can you be sure? You didn’t do the spell on him!” Dudley argued.

“Dudley, there are only like seven witches and wizards have become animagi in the last hundred years. And none of them became a big, black dog, so you don’t have to worry.” I muttered quickly too him, then added, “This dog needs some food and water. Petunia and Vernon would never let us bring him home though. We can’t let hims starve.”

“I mean, if he were to just follow us home, there wouldn’t be anything we could do to stop him. We could try to sneak some of Ripper’s food outside, or at least get him some water.” Dudley said, he still didn’t seem completely sure. He eyed the dog suspiciously, as though he might attack at any moment.

I took the leash back from Dudley and began pulling Ripper back towards home.

Dudley trailed behind me, continuously glancing over his shoulder at the stray.

Once we got home, Dudley and I snuck inside, the dog had followed us all the way back.

I crept into the kitchen and filled a bowl with water and brought it back out to him. He lapped at it greedily. I re-entered the house to grab some food for the dog, when I heard what’s Marge was saying. It was only then that I remembered Harry had been left alone with Petunia, Vernon and Marge. 

Shit.

I rushed into the sitting room to better hear the conversation. Vernon and Marge had their backs to me, so Marge’s words were uninterrupted by my presence. 

“You mustn’t blame yourself for the way the boys turned out, Vernon. If there’s something rotten on the inside, there’s nothing anyone can do about it. It’s one of the most basic rules of breeding. You see it all the time with dogs. If there’s something wrong with the bitch, there will be something wrong with the pup.” This sentence was punctuated by Marge’s wineglass shattering with a loud pop.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

Harry was getting angrier and angrier by the second. I frantically shook my head at him, but his attention was focused on Marge.

“Marge, are you alright?” Petunia asked.

“Fine, fine, happens all the time, I’ve got a tight grip.” Marge waved Petunia’s attempted assistance away. Much to my dismay, Marge continued with her speech, as to the root of Harry’s insolence, as though nothing had happened. “ it all comes down to blood, as I was saying the other day. Now, I’m saying nothing against your family, Petunia. But your sister was a bad egg. They turn up in the best families. Then she ran off with a wastrel and here’s the result right in front of us. This Potter, you never told me what he did? Unemployed, I expect. A no-account, good for nothing, lazy scoundrel who-”

“He was not!” Harry burst.  Oh no. 

“Come on, Harry,” I said loudly, “Let’s, er, let’s go outside for a moment, get some fresh air, calm down.”

“No,” Marge barked and Ripper went running to sit beside her, “Go on, boy. Go on. Proud of your parents, are you? They go and get themselves killed in a car crash, drunk, I expect.”

“They didn’t die in a car crash!” Harry screamed.

“Time to go,” I said, grabbing his arm and attempting to pull him from the room. Harry refused to budge.

But Marge wasn’t finished, “They died in a car crash, you nasty little liar, and left you to be a burden on their decent, hard-working relatives! You are an insolent ungrateful little-” She was expanding, growing, swelling like a balloon, and soon she began to rise like one. 

“Time to go,” I repeated, and this time Harry followed, when I pulled him out of the room. Together, we ran up the stairs and into our room. “You’ve done magic again, outside of school.”

“I know, I know,” Harry hissed, as he furiously began shoving books and clothes into his trunk. I followed suit, “Where’s Hedwig?”

“I sent her to Dumbledore, with our Hogsmeade permission forms.” I replied, hastily packing everything, “We’ll have to go fetch our brooms, from the woods.” He nodded and together we hurried back down the stairs, our trunks banging on every step. Emmett bounded down after us.

“Put her right!” Vernon was screaming. We ignored him and raced out the door. The sun was set, plunging the world around us into darkness. “Get back here and put her right!” He snatched up Emmett, as though to hold him hostage until we ‘fixed’ Marge. The stray dog had other ideas. He lunged for Vernon, growling and putting his front paws on Vernon’s middle. In his surprise, Vernon dropped Emmett. I scooped him into my arms and scratched behind his ears.

“You know, I think I prefer her that way,” I said with a laugh, “Come here boy.” The dog jumped down and ran to my side in an instant.

Without another word, we took off down the street.

“I am in so much trouble,” Harry moaned, several blocks later, when we were just coming up on the park. 

“I’m not so sure, I mean it was an accident right? And you didn’t even have your wand.” I reasoned.

“We’ve run away!” He argued. “We’re in a forest, lugging around trunks, searching for our flying broomsticks!”

“You’re so dramatic.” I chuckled. He rolled his eyes at me.

“We could be expelled.” He hissed, “Or at least, I could be.”

“Harry, it’ll be fine.” I said, exasperated.

Several minutes passed before we finally reached the place where our brooms were hidden. 

“What do we do now?” Harry asked.

“Aren’t your supposed to be the older one?” I supplied, unhelpfully.

“Aren’t you supposed to be the smarter one?” He countered.

“Fine,” I sighed, “I suppose we could take the knight bus.”

“The what?” 

“The knight bus.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s wizarding transportation.” I answered, “We’ve just gotta get back to a street.”

“Right,” He responded, utterly clueless.

I rolled my eyes yet again and trudged back towards the road.

***

The stray followed us onto the bus. He must have been really hungry. 

Once on the bus, we were greeted by a scraggly teenager named Stan Shunpike. He got us settled down, we told him we wanted to go to the Leaky Cauldron, then he flipped open a newspaper. It was the Daily Prophet, the same installment I had read, just this morning. 

“How do you think he did it, Sirius Black I mean. How do you think he escaped?” I asked Harry.

“No idea.” He replied.

“Right, well aren’t you a wealth of information.” I said sarcastically. He glowered at me.

“Well what do you reckon he did to land himself there in the first place?” Harry retorted.

“The prophet said he was one of Voldemort’s supporters.” I said.

“Oi!” Stan shouted, “What’d you go saying his name for?” 

“Sorry,” I mumbled. “But he was, wasn’t he? One of You-know who’s supporters?”

“Yeah, the biggest one of them all. Most of them went quietly, see, when little Harry Potter defeated you-know-who, but not Black. No, he blew up a whole street of muggles and killed twelve of them, and a wizard too. And you know what he did then?” Stan was clearly relishing in the attention.

Still, I played along, “What?”

“He laughed.” Stan said darkly.

“He laughed?” I asked.

“Yup, just stood there and laughed. Ministry officials arrived and arrested him and he just stood there, kept on laughing. Even as they took him away.” Stan finished.

The stray whined slightly. I reached over to pet him as I asked, “Who was the wizard, the one he killed?”

“Some bloke called Peter Petigrew, wanted to play the hero, I suppose.” Stan said.

Peter Petigrew.  Now why did that name sound familiar too?

“Who was Peter Petigrew?” I asked, “I’ve heard that name before.”

“I dunno, didn’t do anything worth taking notice of, up until he died of course.” Stan said, “I reckon dying was the noblest thing he’d ever done.”

The stray followed us off of the bus too.

And there, at the Leaky Cauldron, an unwelcome sight awaited us. 

The Minister of Magic. Cornelius Fudge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave kudos and comments!


	4. Diagon Alley

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy!

They must have tracked Harry using his trace.

The minister paid me no mind as I slipped by, Emmett perched on my shoulder, trunk in one hand, broom in the other, the stray dog on my heels. The minister stopped Harry and seemed to be discussing something with him.

Minutes later, Harry joined me and muttered, “I’m not in trouble, they fixed Marge and we have to stay here, at the Leaky Cauldron, until the start of term. The Dursleys are willing to take us back next summer.”

“Oh wonderful, I’m so glad we get to return for the summer.” I said sarcastically.

***

Harry and I decided it would be best to share a room with two beds.

There wasn’t any dog food in Diagon Alley, so I settled with ordering steak and potatoes for him every evening for dinner and bacon, eggs and toast every morning for breakfast.

Slowly the dog began to look healthier, filling out. I couldn’t see his ribs anymore. I decided it was time to give him a name. I started calling him different things, but the only one he reacted to was Shadow. So his name became Shadow.

August flew by and then the Weasley’s were home from their vacation, and Draco and Hermione were in Diagon Alley too.

“So here he is,” Draco said when I introduced him to Shadow, “Live and in person. I thought you said he was a stray.”

“Yeah well, I’ve been feeding him, so he’s healthy now.” I said.

“He’s kinda cute,” Draco commented, reaching out to scratch him behind the ears, “What are you going to do with him when we go to Hogwarts?”

Shit, I hadn’t thought about that, “I don’t know yet, do you think I could hide him?”

“I don’t know, maybe. If you can get your hands on an invisibility cloak, then you could sneak him on the train. Once you get him to your dorm room, he should be safe.” Mused Draco.

“That’s not a bad idea, I’ll have to see about an invisibility cloak.” Over Draco’s shoulder, I saw two extremely blonde people approaching us. Draco’s parents.

“You must be Emma,” His mother said, smiling kindly at me.

“Yes, and you must be Mrs. Malfoy.” I greeted, taking her hand in my own and shaking it.

“Please, call me Narcissa, and this is Lucius.” She gestured to her husband.

“It’s lovely to meet you, Narcissa. Lucius.” I shook Lucius’ hand too. I was wary of him, he had been the one to give Ginny the diary last year. The one that had possessed her and forced her to open up the chamber of secrets. But Narcissa, I had no reason not to trust her.

The family was pureblood, and had the prejudice views to match. But Draco, was changing, or at least I hoped he was. And maybe his parents could too.

***

“I think I might get another cat, so Emmett has a friend,” I said, walking with Hermione and the Weasley twins.

“Soon enough, you’re going to become a crazy cat lady.” George teased.

At the same time, Hermione said, “What about an owl, you have been complaining about having to use Hedwig all the time.”

“You could always get both,” Fred suggested. I could get both. But then I would have an owl, two cats and a dog.

“Hermione, have you thought about getting a pet?” I asked.

“Yes, I thought I might get an owl,” She said, “I’m getting sick of using the school owls.”

“We should go in together, have a look at the animals.” I suggested.

“We’ll come too,” George piped up. Fred elbowed him in the ribs, “Never mind, we’ll just be in the Leaky Cauldron.”

“You know, maybe we should get Ron, he wanted a tonic for his rat.” Hermione said.

I shook my head immediately, “No, no, no! I hate that rat, there’s something about it that isn’t quite right.”

“You just don’t like rats.” Hermione said, exasperated.

I sighed, “Maybe, but there’s something off about him.”

Hermione shrugged and we entered The Magical Menagerie, the little welcome bell tinkling to announce our arrival.

All around us were the sounds of various animals. There were birds, cats, rats, mice, dogs, and even some creatures I had never seen before. I sped right by the rats and mice section, holding no interest in the rodents. I stopped near the dogs, but there weren’t any that peaked my interest. Not that I would have purchased one anyway, one dog was quite enough. Hermione and I stopped by the owls. A beautiful, golden barn owl caught by attention. Not for its beauty, but because it was showing off, spinning its head back and forth and flapping his wings back and forth. He looked ridiculous and I found myself drawn to him. I read the tag and found he was a she; Tamber. I reached out to touch her and she hooted softly at me. I turned to tell Hermione that she was the one, only to find, she had moved on, to the cats.

I picked her up, and she scooted onto my shoulder, pecking gently on my ear. I hurried over to Hermione, who smiled at me, “Looks like you’ve got a match.”

I smiled back at her, “So, no one for you?”

“No, at least none of the owls are. But I hope I’ll find a cat.” Hermione replied, “Are you just going to get the owl, or a cat too?”

“I’m not sure, depends if I find a cat that I really like.” I said, directing my attention to the cats around us. One of the cats who wasn’t on a perch walked over to us, rubbing his bushy head against Hermione’s legs. He let out a forlorn meow and cocked his head at her. She scooped him into her arms and scratched his chin. He began to purr loudly. “Well, there you go, he’s perfect.”

Hermione nodded, “Yeah, I think he is.” She brought Tambor and the cat over to the shop owner to purchase them, with a bit of my money, so I could continue looking at the cats. I spent a good twenty minutes observing them, with no luck. Finally, I gave up and walked towards the doors.

I nearly screamed when a fluffy black and white cat pounced onto my foot, ferociously attacking my worn shoelaces. I tried to pet him, but he leapt back, hissing at me. I stood there for a moment, then bent down to tie my laces. He hopped onto a shelve, level with my shoulder. I stood again and began to leave the shop, when he swatted at my hair, letting out a sad, kitten mew. I raised my eyebrows at him and huffed a laugh.

“Well, make up your mind.” I laughed. He flopped onto his side and began rolling back and forth, never breaking eye contact. “Alrighty then, come on.” He allowed me to pick him up and I carried him to the check out center.

A few minutes later, I emerged with my new cat, Latte.

Petunia and Vernon would be livid, come summer. They might not let me stay, if I showed up with Shadow, Latte, Tambor and Emmett. I could only hope all of them would get along with one another.

I met Hermione outside, and she passed Tambor back to me. Tambor seemed rather uninterested in Latte and settled contentedly upon my shoulder. While Latte busied himself with chewing on my hoodie strings.

***

Ron was in an utter uproar.

“Everyone has it our for Scabbers! Crookshanks, Tambor, Emmett, Shadow, Latte. They’re all trying to eat him! He’s losing weight and hair! He’s terrified! You two need to get your animals under control or get rid of them!” Ron screamed at Hermione and I after one particularly close call.

“Honestly, Ron! Don’t be so dramatic!” Hermione hollered back at him, “Cats, owls and dogs eat rats, so just keep your stupid rat away from them! It’s nature.”

I refused to talk to Ron after that. How dare he suggest, I get rid of my animals.

***

“Hey, Harry,” I said. We were sitting outside of Florean Fortescue's Ice-Cream Parlor together. Tambor, Latte and Emmett were back in the hotel room with Hedwig. But Shadow was with us. I had bought a vanilla ice cream, but I had just held it out for him, not wanting any myself. What was funny to me, was that he was licking it primly, rather than simply gobbling the whole thing up in one bite. “Do you have any idea where I could get an invisibility cloak?”

“I have one,” Harry said nonchalantly.

“What?!” I nearly screamed.

“Yeah, I thought I told you, over the summer, before last year. It belonged to Dad. Dumbledore passed it down to me.” Harry explained.

I shook off my surprise and annoyance, in favor of staying on task, “Well, anyway, can I use it, to sneak Shadow onto the Hogwarts Express?” I asked.

“Of course,” He said shortly and that was that.

***

The start of term came faster than I could have imagined.

We put Shadow under the invisibility cloak and were careful to make sure he stayed close by. Pansy found me on the platform, so I was forced to split up with Harry, Hermione and the Weasleys. I gave them a smile and a small wave, over my shoulder.

I knew Harry would make sure Shadow made it on safely.

Pansy led me to Blaise and Draco, both of which were standing with their mothers.

I hugged them both and Draco said, “You got some new animals!”

“Yes, this is Tambor, and this is Latte,” I said, gesturing to each of them in turn, “They’re both complete nut jobs.”

Pansy snorted as Latte began chewing on my hair.

Draco leaned forward and whispered to me, “Is Shadow around here somewhere?”

“Yeah, he’s under an invisibility cloak somewhere around here, I told him to get on the train, he’s pretty smart, so I think he’ll manage it.” I said with a laugh. I tried my best to hide away my nerves as I boarded the train. I was internally panicking. What if Harry lost Shadow? I had to remind myself that Hermione was with them and she would make sure Shadow was okay.

I tugged at my fingers nervously. The four of us joined Daphne and Millicent in a compartment. I hadn’t really been friends with Daphne last year, nor had I really talked to her, despite sharing a bathroom in the dormitories.

She was really quite beautiful. She looked like the female version of Draco, except her eyes were blue, not gray. There was someone tucked into the corner, someone I hadn’t noticed before. She had dark hair, but that was all I could see of her. She seemed to be hiding.

“My sister,” Daphne said, in answer to my unasked question, “It’s her first year, and she’s pretty nervous. Her name is Astoria.”

“Hey, Astoria. I’m Emma. I started last year.” I greeted her, “And these are my friends, Pansy, Blaise and Draco.” She peeked out from behind her dark hair and I saw that she looked just like her elder sister. It was like they had been made from the same mold, just painted different. Astoria’s eyes were a vivid green, even brighter than mine.

“Hi, Emma.” She said shyly, then to the others, “Hi Draco, Blaise, Pansy.”

Blaise smiled, Draco waved and Pansy chirped back, “Hey.”

The train whistle blew and then we were moving, beginning the long trip to Hogwarts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked this introduction of Astoria. I want her to play a bigger role in this fanfic than what was originally planned! Let me know what you think! The next chapter should be out tomorrow. :)


	5. Dementors

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here you go :)

“Why are you scared to go to Hogwarts?” I asked Astoria.

“She doesn’t think anyone will be her friend.” Daphne said, after a long moment in which Astoria remained silent.

“I’ll be your friend,” I said, instantly and without thinking.

“You don’t want to be, I’m cursed.” Astoria whispered.

Draco’s brow furrowed. “Cursed, how?”

“It’s a family curse, hasn’t shown up in generations. But, it’s made a reappearance in her.” Daphne jumped in.

“So, what does that mean?” Pansy asked, “For your life, your future?”

“I won’t have much of either,” Astoria mumbled.

“Stop it!” Daphne gasped, “Don’t say that!”

Astoria glared at her sister and then retreated back into her corner.

I decided it would be best to refrain from inquiring her further, so I turned to Draco and whispered, “I had better go and track down Shadow, where ever he’s gone off to.”

He nodded to me, then asked, “Do you want me to come with you?”

“No, I’ll manage fine on my own.” I reassured him, before standing and exiting the compartment.

I first walked all the way to the front of the express, then began to work my way back, glancing into every compartment, searching for my brother.

Finally, I found him, in a compartment with Hermione, Ron, and some man I had never seen before.

I entered, closing the dog behind me, “Is Shadow in here?” I whispered.

Simultaneously, they nodded. Subtly, Hermione reached her hand out, apparently onto thin air, but I knew better.

I mirrored her action and moved to touch the place, she had. I found something solid there, Shadow. I couldn’t help but smile, we had made it through the first step towards sneaking him to Hogwarts.

“So, who is that?” I asked, nodding to the man, sleeping against the window.

“R. J. Lupin,” Hermione said, at the same time as I noticed the letters engraved in his trunk.

“Remus Lupin,” I whispered. _Sirius Black. Peter Pettigrew. Remus Lupin._

“What?”

“I’ve got to go,” I muttered, my mind racing, “Come on Shadow.”

I burst from the compartment and hurried back down the hall to our compartment, to my trunk.

I pulled it open and tore through its contents, searching for my photo album. There. I opened it and frantically flipped through the pages until I reached the section I was looking for; the section on my father. In every picture of my dad, he was accompanied by three other boys. I slid the picture from the sleeve, as I had done countless other times. I flipped it over to reveal the back, which had a scribbled little note from Snape.

**James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew (left to right)**

I turned the phot back around and studied the image. There they were, arms wrapped around each others shoulders, smiles wide as could be. They were friends. Best friends by the looks of it, those four. James and Peter dead, Sirius Black a convicted murdered, and Remus Lupin, left all alone.

I looked round at the others in my compartment, Pansy, Daphne and Astoria were deep in animated conversation. Astoria’s spirits seemed to have lifted somewhat. Draco was asleep, his head tipped to the side and Blaise and Millicent were looking over some homework. None of them had taken any notice to my little freak out, good.

I studied the picture some more. My dad looked happy, groomed and well cared for. Sirius looked remarkably happy as well and he was groomed, but he did not hold the heir of being loved. Remus looked a little shabby, in worn down robes, he looked tired too, but happy all the same. And then there was Peter, he seemed happy and a little surprised, to be included perhaps. Sirius didn’t look like a killer, not even close.

I looked at the next picture, it was just like the first. The boys looked happy together. I moved through the pages, until I reached them as adults, this photo was dated to less two months before my parents had died. My dad had his arm around my mum, both of them were smiling. Sirius and Remus had their arms around each other, perhaps a little more than simply in a friends sort of way. Then there was Peter, he looked a little ill. His skin was sallow and his eyes, watery.

Then I looked to the next picture, dated to a week and a half after I was born. Sirius and Remus were sitting on a sofa together. Infant me was in Remus’ arms and year old Harry was climbing on Sirius.

Shadow climbed onto my lap and began looking at the photos with me, he really was one smart dog. I whispered to the dog, “Now, he doesn’t look like a man who killed thirteen people two weeks later, does he?” Shadow whined. “And look, they say he was Voldemort’s right hand man, but he hasn’t even got a dark mark.”

***

It had begun to rain at some point, but I had been to wrapped up in the photo album to notice. It wasn’t until the train lurched to a sudden halt that I started paying attention. Draco jerked awake and stood up with a start. Then the lights went out and we were plunged into absolute darkness.

“Lumos,” Someone hissed and a wand tip illuminated our surroundings.

“What the hell is going on?” Asked Daphne in a hissed whisper. Astoria had fallen asleep in the time I had been looking at the photo album.

Suddenly, the compartment grew very cold, the window frosted over, from the inside. Our breath began to cloud in front of us. Nobody spoke, nobody dared to answer Daphne’s question. Not that anyone had an answer to give. And then this overwhelming nothingness began to take over, leeching the happiness from within me.

The compartment door slid open, and a creature, so foul entered. It’s hand was visible from beneath its cloak, but that was all, nothing else could be seen. The hand was long and boney, slimy, repulsive.

A terrible sound filled my ears, screaming, pleading. “No, not Harry, please not Harry.”

“Move aside you silly girl,” A high, cold voice ordered.

“Please, not Harry, not Harry.”

“Move aside,” And then the world faded away.

***

When I awoke, I was in the hospital wing, at Hogwarts. My eyes didn’t want to open, I had to peel my lids away from one another. It was quite the effort. But as soon as they were opened, all of my other senses came flooding back too.

There were several voices arguing with one another.

“Listen to me Remus, it was Lily and Jame’s decision, they made the choice to put the Fidelius Charm on her, to protect her.” A voice was saying, Dumbledore, I thought.

“But why didn’t they tell me? I’m her Godfather for God’s sake and I didn’t even know!” Someone said, and his voice broke on the last word.

“I don’t know, Remus, I wasn’t inside their heads, I cannot tell you the reasoning behind their every decision.” Dumbledore replied softly, utterly calm and sympathetic.

“How long have you known?” Remus asked.

“Since Lily and James died.” Dumbledore replied, “Hagrid went to get Harry from the house and Sirius was there. He tried to take Harry and Emma but Hagrid refused to let him. So Sirius told Hagrid the secret and wrote it out on a few slips of parchment so Hagrid could share the secret with me and whoever else needed to know. Then he went off and killed all of those muggles and revealed himself as a traitor.”

I turned my head an infinitesimal amount to see them. I saw Remus turn to face Snape, “And how long have you known about her?” His voice wasn’t quite accusatory, but it was close to it.

“A year,” Snape replied, a hint of malice laced his tone.

Remus pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index finger and let out a long, sad sigh.

I sat up, deciding now was the time to make my consciousness known, “Professor,” I groaned out, everything ached, “What house was Astoria Greengrass sorted into?”

Snape laughed, “Met her on the train, did you?”

I nodded, “So?”

“She made it into Slytherin.” He answered with a little smile.

I let out a little sigh or relief, “Oh good.”

“How are you feeling?” Snape asked.

“I’m alright now,” I said, rubbing my head, “Passed out, I guess. Nothing a little chocolate won’t fix.”

All three men looked impressed. I supposed it made sense, they wouldn’t expect a third year to know what a dementor was, and especially not expect me to know the solutions to the sadness they create.

Remus stepped forward, “Your brother passed out too, from the dementors.”

That made sense too, when the dementor had drawn near, I had heard our mother just before she had died. “I heard my mother,” I whispered, “Pleading with Voldemort, I bet he heard it too.” Something changed in all of their expressions, softened in a way.

Remus took another step forward, “I don’t know if you know who I am, but I’m-”

I cut him off, “I know who you are, you’re Remus Lupin. You’re in the photo album that Professor Snape gave me.”

Remus turned and gave Snape an odd look. Snape merely shrugged.

“Is dinner over with?” I asked, “Has everyone gone back to their common rooms?”

“Yes, dinner finished up about an hour ago,” Dumbledore said, “Whatever you want can be sent down to your dorm room.”

“Thanks, so I can go back then?” I asked.

Dumbledore nodded, “Just take it easy when you head back. We’ll send some chocolate, and what would you like for dinner?”

I wasn’t hungry, but I thought of Shadow and how he had been starving, “I’ll have steak and potatoes, if that isn’t an issue.”

“Of course, whatever you want.” Snape jumped in. I offered him a small smile.

I needed to talk to Draco, find out what had happened, check in on the animals.

But there was one more thing I needed to know, before I left, “Did anyone else pass out, besides Harry and I?”

“No.” Exactly as I had thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be up tomorrow :)


	6. Start of Classes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here you go :)

The moment I entered the Slytherin common room, I was engulfed in a hug.

When he pulled away, it was revealed to be Draco.

“Hey,” I greeted him tentatively.

“You scared me!” He nearly shouted, gasping my hands.

“Sorry.” I mumbled, looking at the ground.

“Don’t apologize, just don’t do it again.” His arms were crossed, he looked really worried.

“Draco, I’m fine, I promise.” I said, trying to reassure him, “Now onto more important business.” I pulled him into a more private corner, to talk without being overheard. “What happened? After the dementor came into the compartment?”

“Everyone just froze and then you hit the floor, Blaise was closest. He tried to catch you, but he couldn’t get to you in time. Pansy and Millicent started screaming, they thought you were dead. Daphne stunned her sister, so she wouldn’t see what was happening and get even more freaked out. That new teacher, Professor Lupin came running in and shouted that Sirius Black wasn’t on the train. But the dementor didn't leave so he did a spell and it got the dementor to go away.

“The train started moving again and he said he had to go talk to the conductor, but we should keep an eye on you. He left us with some chocolate to give you when you woke up, but you never did. Daphne woke up her sister, Millicent went to find Lupin, to let him know that you’d never woken up, Pansy made sure Shadow stayed under the cloak, and I carried you off the train. Daphne got your trunk and Blaise got mine. Lupin found us and had me bring you to the hospital wing and Snape sent me back to dinner. Pansy and Millicent snuck Shadow into your room during the feast.

“He’s okay by the way. We snuck him some food from the feast and he seemed pretty happy. He didn’t seem to have been effected by the dementors at all. Which is good, but odd. I suppose it could be because he’s a muggle dog, muggles can’t see them, you know? Tambor, Latte and Emmett are alright too. They’re all around here somewhere, not sure where, though.”

He looked around the common room, searching for them. I tried to hold back a laugh as I let out a three note whistle. Emmett and Latte came running to greet me immediately.

“So, what happened to you?” Asked Draco, “You and Potter were the only ones who passed out.”

“Isn’t it obvious?” I asked him, “My parents were murdered by Voldemort... while I was in the room. A couple weeks later, Harry’s parents were murdered, and Harry was in the room. When the dementor came in, I could hear my parents... dying. I guess that he heard his dying too. That’s enough to make anyone pass out, don’t you think?” Draco nodded but remained silent, idly petting Latte. “I’m going to my room, I need to check on Shadow, eat some dinner, then I’m going to bed.”

“Good night.”

“Good night.”

***

Muggle studies was first for the morning. Draco and I left breakfast a few minutes early to get there, since we didn’t really know where the classroom was. We found it alright though. The room was covered in all things muggle. Muggle clothes, muggle technology, muggle toys, muggle music, movies and shows.

Hermione was already there, of course, and... a Hufflepuff. I thought his name was Ernie of something of the sort. I wondered if this would be it, just the four of us. My worry abated almost immediately as more people began to file inside.

Our Professor stood and said, “Alright, I think that should be everyone. Now, I’m going to take attendance. When I call your name, just raise your hand. Mandy Brocklehurst, Emma Evans, Hermione Granger, Megan Jones, Isobel MacDougal, Ernie Macmillan, Draco Malfoy, Lily Moon, Padma Patil, Parvati Patil, Oliver Rivers, and Sophie Roper. Good, everyone is here. My name is Professor Burbage. This year we will be mainly focusing on muggle technology and how they are able to achieve the same things we achieve with magic. Our first unit will be focused on muggle communications, today we will begin to take a look at the telephone. Muggles often have group projects and do all assignments with small groups, so we will be doing things that way in this class. You might to an assignment as pairs, trios, groups of four or six. We pay even do things as a complete class. But, you’ll only ever have to do the exams alone. Now, the telephone...”

***

Our second class for the day was divination. Our teacher, Professor Trelawney started off the class by performing some low level divination parlor tricks, that left the whole class shaken. Then she had us drink from teacups until only the dregs were left behind. We were meant to look at each other’s dregs and decipher the meanings behind them.

Draco turned out to be dreadful at it.

He stared at my cup, flipping through the pages of the tea leaf section. “Alright so this means that you’re going to be purified. This means you’ll be at peace and this means you’re going to experience this in midwinter.” Draco said questioningly. I felt Trelawney’s eyes on us, so I took my teacup back from him and examined it myself.

“Well, you got the winter part right, but this doesn’t mean peace, it means deception, and this bit here isn’t purification, revealing. So someone is deceiving me and the truth will be revealed early this winter.” I said, but internally I thought of something different. What if my secret was what was going to be revealed. I was the deceiver.

Trelawney nodded approvingly at me, and suggested, “Now perhaps you should do his.”

I nodded and took Draco’s cup, “Er- This bit here, this means you’ll experience a great victory soon. I hope that’s the Quidditch match against Gryffindor. Anyway, oh, er, this bit isn’t so great.” Trelawney looked at me expectantly, so I continued, “Someone will be harmed, and this part here means it will be someone you care about. So you’ll have a great victory but someone who you care about will be harmed.”

Trelawney beamed at me, “You have really got a knack for this Miss Evans, very good! Very good indeed!” Ron sent me a reproving glare, but Harry just looked bewildered. “Tell me, girl, do you ever experience premonitions?”

“Er, I guess so, yeah,” I responded, thinking hard.

“And are you ever overcome with a feeling of extreme of Déjà vu?” She asked.

And this time I knew the answer, “Yes.”

“Then, young lady, I do believe you have the sight!” She exclaimed with a flourish.

Class continued on, without further incident or revelation, until the very end. Trelawney seemed to want to end the class with a bang, for just before the bell rung to signal the end of class, she looked into Harry’s cup and fell away with a moan of despair. The class gasped and asked what was wrong and finally she was able to bring herself to words, “It’s the Grim!”

The class gasped in shock and horror. Finding the Grim in a teacup meant the owner was going to die, and soon. My hands shook when I heard the news. But, I found myself skeptical. So, as everyone was filing out of the class, I snatched up Harry’s teacup.

“Look,” I said to Draco, “This isn’t the Grim.” I balanced my open book in one hand and the teacup in the other, pointing with my pinky at the depiction of the Grim. “This looks nothing like his teacup, right there, that’s showing that he’ll have an accident during an important event. So he’ll get hurt, but he won’t die!”

Draco was looking at me with raised brows.

“She’s a fraud, she just did that for the reaction!” I ranted, “And now she’s got him scared, for nothing!”

Carefully, Draco said, “If I didn’t know better, it would seem like she’s got you scared too.”

“I don’t want anyone to die, remember? I hate death, always have.” I spat.

“Right,” He said, looking away, “Sorry.”

***

We hurried across the grounds, towards Hagrid’s hut, for our first care of magical creatures lesson.

“You had better behave yourself,” I hissed to Draco.

He glared at me and then defensively said, “What do you mean?”

“I mean, you seem to like seeing Hagrid crash and burn, but I don’t and I want him to succeed.”

“But what I’d he’s a dreadful teacher?” Draco asked, “We need a proper education!”

“If he’s a bad teacher, then I will visit him everyday and help him with lesson plans! I need you to promise me that you won’t sabotage him.” I pleaded with him.

Eventually, slowly, he nodded, “Okay, okay, since it’s so important to you. But why, why is it so important to you?”

“I don’t know, because, because he’s my friend. I want to see him happy.” I said. It was the truth.

We reached the hut and I saw that Harry, Ron and Hermione were there too. So we had this class with the Gryffindors.

Our first class was fantastic. Hagrid was brilliant, even Draco had to admit it. The lesson was focused around Hippogriffs. They were a proud, elegant species. Hagrid taught us how to interact with them, we even got to fly on them. It was much different from riding a broom, nerve wracking, but I liked the rush of adrenaline. While we were interacting with the hippogriffs, Hagrid told us all about them. What they ate, how to care for them, their demeanor and temperament. Hagrid knew so much about them, and was a constant wealth of fun facts.

After class, I told Draco to go on ahead and I stayed back. Harry, Hermione and Ron did too. As soon as I approached the three of them, my Sneakoscope from Pansy began to whir. I had taken to keeping it with me, ever since divination. I suspected, I was the traitor, but I was still paranoid that it could have been someone else.

I glanced at it skeptically, before shoving it back into my robes.

“You were fantastic!” I screamed excitedly to Hagrid.

He grinned at me, “Really? I was a little worried that the Slytherins wouldn’t like it.”

“We loved it, the hippogriffs were extraordinary.” To punctuate my statement, I stroked one of the nearest ones. It offered a satisfied coo in response.

Hermione, Ron and Harry all nodded vigorously in agreement. Hagrid was so happy, and I was so proud of him for teaching such a good lesson.

The four of us walked back towards the castle together. When we were nearly there, I pulled Harry aside. “Listen, Harry, you got a Sneakoscope from Ron right?”

“Er, yeah, but it doesn’t work right,” He said, “It goes off randomly.”

“When, who have you been with when its gone off?” I pushed.

“Uh, you, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, Percy, Dean, Neville, Seamus, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Ginny, and Professor Lupin.” Harry said, ticking off the names on his fingers.

I pulled mine from within my robes, “Mine has been going off too. I don’t think it’s a coincidence. It went off just now, when I was with you, Ron, Hagrid and Hermione.” Theories were springing into my mind, each one more unlikely than the last. “Ron went on vacation over the summer, what if Black jumped him while he was on his own somewhere. What if Black has been using polyjuice potion, so he can become Ron and get close to you. Has he been acting odd at all?”

Harry looked at me like I had six heads, “You’re joking right?”

Just then I realized how stupid I was being, there was no way Sirius could have been impersonating Harry’s best friend. Harry might have been a bit dim sometimes, but he wasn’t stupid.

“Sorry, I’m just worried.” I muttered, looking at the ground.

He sighed, “Me too. But McGonagall said Trelawney predicts that someone is going to die every year... and they never do.”

“Oh, I didn’t know you were worried about the Grim. I may or may not have stolen your teacup after class. It didn’t have the Grim in it. It did, however, show that you would have an accident during an important event. It’ll probably be the Quidditch match against me. Because Draco’s cup said he was going to be victorious, so maybe Slytherin will win the match because you’ll get hurt.” I contemplated.

“You really believe in that stuff?” Harry asked.

“Yes,” I said, maybe I was a little defensive, “Incase you hadn’t noticed, it’s magic in a school for magic. Anyway, have you had your first defense against the dark arts lesson yet?”

He nodded, “Lupin is a good teacher, we got to fight a boggart.”

“I hope our class fights one too, that would fun.” What was I most afraid of though? I wasn’t sure. No, that wasn’t true, I did know what I was most afraid of. I was most afraid of Sirius Black. The man who didn’t look like a killer, the man who had hung onto my dad like they were the best of friends. The man who had been my secret keeper and then gone on to murder thirteen people, one of them being his one of his best friends. The man who had been living a double life. And if what I had heard from Snape, Lupin and Dumbledore was true, then Sirius Black was my secret keeper. He held the secret of who I was, and he could release it at any time. He could put a target on my back with a single sentence. In an attempt to settle my nerves, I tugged on my fingers. It didn’t seem to help.

He could ruin my life, end my life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You’ll get to see Emma with the boggart in tomorrow’s chapter


	7. Facing the Boggart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Everyone! I hope you all enjoy!

We, ten Slytherins, entered our Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom at the same time. Some of the Ravenclaws were already there, Terry Boot, Sue Li and Lisa Turpin. That meant we were waiting for seven more, before class would begin.

The ten of us crowded into a corner to talk while we waited for the rest of the Ravenclaws.

“I swear, the Gryffindors have gotten more annoying this year, Draco, Emma, you have to beat them in the Quidditch match.” Blaise growled, eyeing some Gryffindors who were walking by the classroom door.

Millicent, Pansy, Vincent and Greg nodded their agreement.

“I don’t know, they’re not that bad,” Daphne said, staring off into the distance.

“Yeah and that Potter is pretty damn hot,” Tracey commented.

Draco looked disgusted, as I tried desperately to mask the horror, I felt at anyone calling my brother ‘hot’.

“He’s a natural at Quidditch too, and those eyes.” Theo said, dreamily.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and squeezed my eyes shut.

“I mean sure, he’s real attractive, if you like someone with a savior complex, but faints at the slightest danger,” Draco scoffed. I sent him a glare.

“Emma, you’re being awfully quiet, what do you think of him. Do you think he’s attractive?” Millicent asked.

“I don’t think he’s attractive,” I said, a little to quickly, for those who didn’t know he was my brother.

Pansy smiled, “You like him!”

“I don’t!” I said, loudly.

“It sounds... like you do,” Greg smirked.

“I promise you, I really don’t.” I said.

Vincent laughed, “Right, whatever you say.” His tone made it quite clear that he didn’t believe me.

“What do you see in him?” Draco asked harshly.

“Nothing! I’ve told you, I don’t like him! Not like that!” I couldn’t believe I was having this conversation with them. Especially since they all held up such a front of despising Harry.

“Well, I’m not afraid to admit it.” Daphne said haughtily. 

“Me neither,” Tracey said, though she seemed significantly less confident and blushed slightly.

“Me, as well,” Theo added, “And I have already said what I see in him.”

“Oh come on now,” Draco groaned, ‘You haven’t got a clue what Potter’s eyes look like.”

“Yes I have!” Theo said defensively, “They’re green.”

“Wow,” Pansy drawled, “Very descriptive.”

Theo glowered at her, but didn’t provide any further information.

Blaise opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by Lupin.

“Alright class, I had better go through attendance, though I do believe that everyone is here.”

He ran through the attendance and then told us all to follow him. We did as we were told and soon found ourselves in the staffroom.

“Now, I’m sure some of your classmates have told you what we’re fighting, so who can tell me?” Lupin asked.

I raised my hand and was called on, “A boggart.”

“Correct,” He beamed, “And who can tell me what a boggart is?”

I raised my hand again, but this time Draco was called on, “It’s a shapeshifter that turns into a person’s greatest fear.”

“Yes,” Lupin said, “He will become what each of us fears most, once we let him out, has anyone spotted the advance we have?”

This time it was Pansy who answered, “Well there are twenty one of us and only one of it, it won’t know what to turn into. It’ll get confused.”

“Right you are!” Lupin exclaimed. He showed us the spell that we would use against the boggart and then had us prepare ourselves, mentally. I wondered if boggart Sirius would be able to share my secret, I would have to act fast, so to keep from finding out.

Millicent was up first. The boggart was a blur of motion before it settled on a lion.

“Riddikulus!” It opened its mouth to let out an ear splitting roar, only to release a kitten’s mew. The whole class burst into laughter.

Moments later, Anthony Goldstein was up. And then the Basilisk was before us.

“Riddikulus!” It turned a bright, neon pink with fake eyelashes. More laughter.

Terry Boot. A centaur with a bow pointed at his heart. “Riddikulus” He had the head of a horse and the legs of a man.

Tracey. A man was spewing blood. “Riddikulus!” He was shooting confetti.

Blaise. A vampire. “Riddikulus!” His fangs fell out.

Draco. His father. “Riddikulus!” Mr. Malfoy began to tap dance with a large grin.

My turn. And then Sirius Black was before me. His eyes sunken, hair greasy and falling in waves to his elbows. _Traitor. Traitor. Traitor._ “Riddikulus!” And he was a boy again, just like the boy in that picture. His arm was outstretched comically in midair, as though around some invisible person. His smile was wide and genuine. He was clean and happy, groomed. Once again that unbidden thought came to me, _He doesn’t look like a killer._

And then Oliver Rivers was going and Black was gone, replaced by a red eyed gargoyle.

***

“Why are you afraid of Sirius Black?” Draco asked.

“You really want to go there?” I asked, turning to face him, arms crossed, “Because if we go there, then we’re going to dissect the reason behind your father being your boggart.”

He backed down rather quickly, “Fine, but what do you even know about Black?”

“Not much, what do you know?” I countered.

“I know that he is the reason Potter’s parents are dead.” He said snidely.

My heart stopped.

My blood ran cold.

“What?” I asked. My voice was so high that it was barely discernible.

“Never mind,” He said, turning to leave my room.

I grabbed his arm and turned him back around, “No! Don’t you dare do that!”

He glared at me, “Do what?”

“Say something like that and then just leave!” I was shaking now.

“Why does this matter though? Why is it such a big deal?” He nearly screamed.

There. He had me with that. He was right, there was no reason it should matter.

“It... it just does, okay? So, please, just tell me. Tell me what you know.” I said, my voice significantly quieter now.

“Fine, fine.” He said. He took a deep breath before continuing, “Sirius Black, according to my father, but his information is accurate, because he gets everything he knows from the ministry. Anyway, Sirius Black, was the Potter’s secret keeper. He had the secret of their hideout, because the Potters trusted him. He betrayed them and ran back to the Dark Lord. He gave up their secret and got them killed.”

Shadow was whining incessantly. Absentmindedly, I reached out to scratch behind his ears. “You can go now.” I didn’t recognize my own voice, it was cold, hollow.

“Emma,” He said softly, and I noticed that he hadn’t moved. But he couldn’t stay, I didn’t want him here any longer. As if on cue, the magic of the room took hold and he was violently shoved back. He was pushed from the room. “Emma, come on.”

But then he was gone, pushed from the girl’s dormitory completely.

I collapsed onto my bed, my body wracked with silent sobs.

Between sobs, I gasped, “Oh Shadow, he really looks like their friend, doesn’t he?” I was staring at one of the pictures from the photo album of the four of them.

There was some disconnect in my brain, some part of me that refused to associate the smiling teenager with the criminal in the Daily Prophet. I couldn’t wrap my head around it. None of this made any sense.

***

The Quidditch match against Gryffindor was fast approaching and tensions were higher than ever. Both teams had taken to practicing nightly for hours on end.

Draco and I hadn’t discussed my little freak out, when I had kicked him out of my room. Nor had I told Harry anything of what I had learned, I knew that I needed to, but I didn’t want to bring him anymore pain. I promised myself that I would tell him after the Quidditch match.

I still wasn’t trusting of Ron, for the Sneakoscope continued to alert me whenever he was near.

***

I wasn’t nervous when the Quidditch match arrived. I wasn’t scared at all. I was ready. The whole team was. I was not, however, ready for what would come after. I did not want to tell Harry what I had learned about Sirius Black.

Marcus Flint shook hands with Oliver Wood. Both of them looked like they wanted to break the other’s hand. They backed away from one another and we mounted our brooms. On Madam Hooch’s whistle, we kicked off into the air. It was cold for early October and raining horribly. Every drop that hit my skin was like an icicle down my spine. I could hardly see, but I was better off than Harry, at least. His glasses would be fogged and rain splattered, making it nearly impossibly to see two feet in front of him, let alone search for the snitch.

I flew circles around the pitch, scanning the air around me, hoping to spot some glimmer of gold. Draco was the first to score, bringing us up ten to zero. We scored thrice more and Gryffindor once, before I caught sight of the snitch. It was right in the thick of things and I dove for it, but Harry had spotted it too. We were racing towards it from opposite sides of the pitch. It was anyone’s game. My vision began to blur subtly. But then it was harder and harder to see and the air was getting colder. All sense of happiness was leaving me.

_Dementors._

Screaming filled my ears, pleading. My mum, again. _No, no, no! Not now!_

But the darkness was swallowing me and I could feel myself starting to fall. The ground was growing nearer, even as I lost my ability to see it. I heard someone calling out to me, my name.

“Emma!” It was Draco, but he was too far away, he wouldn’t reach me in time. I was going to hit the ground. But, Harry, Harry was there. Level with me. He was coming to save me! But no, he was falling too. Both of us, broom-less. Hopeless. Helpless.

Would a fall from this height kill us? I tried to remember if I had read of someone dying from falling in Quidditch. But I couldn’t think and then I hit the ground. Pain shot through every bit of me and the world went out, like a candle, in a harsh wind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed! Please be sure to leave comments and kudos! Thanks for all of the support I have been getting so far! Love you all! And be sure to check out the my other work. A Starry Eighth Year. I am co-authoring it with appalyneinstitute1! It’s a Drarry fic! And its my first time ever co-authoring something!


	8. Wake Up Call

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry, this one is a little later in the day than when I usually post.   
> This chapter has not been edited yet but I didn’t want to make you guys wait any longer. I’ll repost this chapter with edits in a bit.   
> This is also the first chapter I’m posting from my phone. I’m sitting in my car, in a Wegmans (supermarket) parking lot right now. I’m right next to one of the places where you leave your shopping carts, and this one girl is really struggling to put her cart away. It’s quite funny and she’s got the most fabulous pants on too. They’re like those pants that Elvis Presley would wear, you know the ones. Anyway, without further ado, here’s the chapter! Enjoy!

For the second time this year, I woke up in the hospital wing. It took my eyes a moment to focus, and even then, my vision seemed to be confused somehow. The light shining into the room had a grayish tint to it. I tried to turn my head, to look out the window, but I could hardly move. All that I managed to accomplish was releasing a groan of pain. Madam Pomfrey came bustling over to me, and she nearly screamed when she saw that my eyes were open.

“Oh my! Dear, you’re awake!” She trilled, eyes wide and face pale. Then she broke into a smile that shone with relief, “We weren’t sure if you’d ever wake.”

“What?” I asked, groggily. My voice was scratchy from lack of use, “How long have I been out for?”

“A little over a month, it’s November 17th,” Madam Pomfrey explained softly.

My first thought was of my missed birthday. My second thought was of my pets, had someone taken care of them for me? What about Harry? Was he alright, he had fallen too, hadn’t he?

I tried to sit up again, to no avail. I settled with trying to turn my head to the side. This turned out to be a pointless endeavor, for the curtains were drawn out around my bed. “Please, can you get my brother?” I begged her.

“Not today sweetie, you need to rest,” She said, adjusting the covers around me.

“I have been resting for the past month, I don’t need anymore of it.” I said, annoyed. “I want to see my brother.”

“I’m afraid I cannot allow that,” She began, but I didn’t let her continue.

“Fine, then I would like to talk to the headmaster.” I hoped that Dumbledore would let me see Harry, or Draco.

“Not today,” She refused to budge. Damnit.

“What time is it?” I asked, feigning defeat.

“Half past noon,” She replied, bustling around me. “You must be famished, here, eat.”

Much to my surprise, I found that I had no appetite. It hurt to even raise my hand, so I couldn’t even move the food around on my plate.

***

The next day, Draco was in to visit me.

“How are you feeling?” He asked me, his face full of worry.

“I just feel sore, mostly, like really, really sore.” I huffed, my voice had come back to me a little, but it was still ragged. “What happened?”

“The dementors came to the match, loads of them. And you and Potter went down. Dumbledore did something to slow Potter’s fall, he was only in the hospital for one night. But Dumbledore couldn’t see you, he didn’t know you were falling, so he couldn’t save you. By the time I got to you, you were lying in a very large pool of your own blood.

“Your heart wasn’t beating Em. Fred did some kind of spell and then you were coughing up blood, but at least you were alive. Then the teachers started arriving, Lupin and Snape got to your first. Lupin conjured a stretcher for you and Harry, Snape started healing you, but he was going on about internal bleeding and brain trauma. Both Quidditch teams were frozen, just standing there, except for Fred. Fred flew off, up to the castle, with George’s broom and he came back a couple minutes later with Madam Pomfrey.

“The dementors were going at everyone, everyone in the stands, McGonagall, Flitwick, Dumbledore and Sprout were fending them off, with their patronuses. Trelawney and Burbage were evacuating the rest of the students and Madam Hooch was getting the teams back, off the pitch.

“Lupin levitated Potter back to the hospital wing. George levitated your stretcher. Snape and Madam Pomfrey were treating you the whole way back to the castle. Granger, Ginny, Longbottom and I were all right behind you.

“You woke up and started screaming about your parents, you were out of your mind. But then you seemed almost coherent for a moment and you asked me to take care of Tambor, Latte, Emmett and Shadow for you. And I thought you meant while you were in the hospital wing, but then you said you wanted me to take care of them after you were dead. And Snape kept saying that you weren’t going to die, but none of us knew if that was true.

“You started to hallucinate and you told me to ‘look at his arm’ and said that ‘his arm explained everything’ and ‘it wasn’t who we thought it was’ and then you started screaming again. Lupin wanted to knock you out, but Snape worried if they did that, you might not wake up.

“And all the sudden you were seizing up and blood was coming out of your mouth again, but this time, by the bucketful. Your heart stopped again, I couldn’t find a pulse. They made us leave, and we thought you were dead. I was sitting in common room for hours, waiting for some kind of news. Our whole year was waiting there, the Quidditch team too. Finally, at three in the morning, Snape came in. He said you were stable, but unconscious, in a magically induced coma. You would need to wake from it on your own.

“Three of us were allowed to go and visit you, so Pansy, Blaise and I went. Dumbledore and Lupin were already there. We stayed until the sun started to rise, then we had to go to breakfast and classes. I took notes for you in all of our classes by the way. And you’ve been excused from everything, you won’t have to make up any work. But I figured you could use the notes for our final exams. Emmett, Latte, Tambor and Shadow are alright too.

“All further Quidditch matches have been postponed until you’re better, Dumbledore dealt with the dementors, they’re still in Hogsmeade at night and guarding the castle, but they won’t come back up here, not for Quidditch. They aren’t much use either, Sirius Black attacked. On Halloween, he shredded the Gryffindor’s portrait because the lady in there, wouldn’t let him inside. No one was hurt though, we were all down at the feast when it happened.”

“Sirius Black attacked?” I shrieked, which turned out to be a mistake, as my throat burned.

“Yes, but no one was hurt, no one even saw him, except for the portraits,” Draco said, trying to soothe me. It didn’t work. Sirius Black had made it into the castle, if he could do that, Harry was in great danger, even if Black couldn’t make it into the dorm rooms.

He could still be in the castle, and he could attack at any time.

***

It was another week before I was discharged from the hospital wing. I felt completely fine, and I was all healed up.

I was walking down a corridor, headed for the Great Hall, when I ran into Lupin.

“Emma,” Lupin greeted, “I’m glad to see you back on your feet.”

“Glad to be back on my feet,” I replied, “Draco told me, that you’re part of the reason I’m still alive.”

“Hardly, it was Professor Snape and Madam Pomfrey,” Before continuing, he looked around, and made sure the corridor was empty, “Listen, I’m teaching your brother how to ward off dementors, I could teach you too.”

That didn’t seem like a bad idea, “Yeah, I mean, I know the theory behind a patronus, a happy memory, right? But a practical lesson surely would be beneficial. But what would we be practicing on?”

“A boggart,” He replied.

“Ah, of course. It’ll do the same thing as a dementor, only diluted, yes?”

“Precisely.”

“And I suppose dementors are my worst fear now, after what happened on my last encounter.” I said jovially.

“Alright, the first lesson will be this Friday, the twenty-sixth. My office, six o’clock sharp.” He said.

“I’ll be there,” I smiled.

***

When I walked into the Great Hall, cheers and clapping erupted all around me. Even the staff applauded my return. I sighed exasperatedly and took my seat between Daphne and Draco. Daphne hugged me and as the clapping died down, said, “How are you feeling? We’ve all missed you.”

“I’m better than ever, thanks to Madam Pomfrey and Snape, they really got me fixed up.” I spooned yogurt and berries onto my plate. In between bites, I asked Draco, “So, have you learned how to use a telephone yet?”

“Yes!” He said and he seemed rather proud of himself, “Now I can call you over the summer! And I learned how to mail you a letter, the muggle way.”

“You’ll have to buy one first, and that’s fantastic. Though I don’t know if I would be able to send you letters the muggle way, the post man would have difficulties locating your house.” I laughed and he grinned back at me.

I turned my attention to Daphne, “How’s Astoria been? Has she made any friends?”

“Oh yes!” Daphne positively beamed, “She’s made lots of friends, I was worried, but she hasn’t had any trouble. Though I don’t think she has told any of them about her problem so it would be great, if you didn’t mention it to anyone.

“Of course, I wouldn’t dream of telling anyone.” I promised.

“Emma, we’d better go,” Draco warned, standing and offering me his hand, “We’re starting on the automobile today and I don’t know anything about them.”

***

“Today we will be starting a group project on automobiles. You will be working in groups of three. So get into your groups now and then I will continue with my directions.” Professor Burbage said, bouncing around the room. She was very young and quite pretty. It was like I was seeing her for the first time, though it had only been six and a half weeks since I had last seen her. I thought it was extremely likely she was still on this side of twenty.

Of course I was going to be partners with Draco, but we needed a third person. Before Draco could figure out what I was doing, I stood and walked to where Hermione sat.

“Hey, Hermione,” I said, smiling at her, “Do you want to be our third member?” I gestured between myself and Draco. She eyed him skeptically, but then shrugged.

“Sure, why not?” She gave me a half smile and stood, to join us at our table.

“What are you doing here?” Draco spat.

“Oh come on Draco, play nice now,” I cooed, “Just think, she can help. She’s muggleborn, so she knows a lot about muggles.”

“But you know a lot about muggles,” Draco argued.

I argued right back, “Do you know every single little thing about wizards, just because you’ve grown up with them?”

He sat back in his chair, arms crossed, face set in a pout. “Fine.” I had to laugh, he resembled a toddler so much in that moment.

***

By the time class was over, Hermione and Draco were able to civilly to one another about our project. I hoped that with a few more classes, the two of them would be able to get along with one another full on. Perhaps it was wishful thinking, but at that moment, anything seemed possible. Latte, Crookshanks and Emmett paraded behind us, seemingly on the lookout for something. They were probably just keeping their eyes out for any stray rat or mouse, I needed to stop being so paranoid.

“Emma, I was thinking about visiting Hagrid this Friday, do you want to come?” Hermione asked me.

I racked my brain, trying to remember what I was supposed to be doing on Friday. Oh right, “I wish, but Harry and I have our defense against dementors lesson with Lupin on Friday.”

“Ah, yeah, okay. I forgot.” Hermione said, seeming mildly upset.

“Another time for sure,” I reassured her, “I’ve been meaning to talk to Hagrid. We have Quidditch practice tonight, not I don’t think I’m busy tomorrow, how about then?”

“Okay,” She said, looking significantly more cheerful, “Well, I had better be off, see you!”

She turned down a corridor to our right and then it was just the two of us, alone.

“You didn’t tell me that you were taking lessons with Potter,” Accused Draco, his eyes were narrowed suspiciously.

“Lupin just asked me about it, right before breakfast and then I was distracted by the applause, I forgot.” I said defensively.

As though he still didn’t quite believe I didn’t have some ulterior motive for withholding the information from him, he said, “Right.”

Before I could utter a retort, Ron came around a corner and approached us.

“Emma, have you seen Hermione?” He asked. No ‘Hey Emma,’ no ‘How are you feeling,’ no ‘It’s good to see you.’ _Classy as always, Weasley._

“No,” I said, monotone. I brushed right past him with Draco, I didn’t turn back, didn’t offer him a backward glance.

My suspicions about him were ever growing, as I pulled out my Sneakoscope, revealing that it had been triggered yet again in Ron’s presence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys liked it! Leave comments and kudos! And in case anyone was wondering, the girl had to have another girl (her friend or sister or girlfriend) come over and put the cart away because she couldn’t do it. And some old guy just fill out fling his cart, it was really scary and I think he broke it. One of the workers is yelling at him. The next chapter will be out tomorrow!


	9. Letter Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! Hope you enjoy the chapter!

I was excited to be back on the Quidditch pitch tonight, flying again. I couldn’t wait to feel the wind on face, in my hair and lungs. What I wasn’t excited for, was the chance that the dementors might choose to make a reappearance.

I pushed my fear aside and went into my dorm room, to fetch my broomstick. Shadow came over to greet me as soon as I entered. I crouched down and hugged him, scratched behind his ears. Then, finally, I stood back up, my joints cracking painfully as I went.

I turned on the spot, scanning the room with my eyes, searching for my broomstick. Everything seemed to be in its rightful place, except for my broom. Perhaps Draco had put it in his room, with his own broom.

I hurried down the stairs from the girl’s dorms and then up the stairs of the boy’s dorms. I reached Draco’s room and knocked at the door. No answer. I turned the knob and went inside, I wouldn’t have been able to enter, if I hadn’t been welcome. Even so, I felt as though I was intruding into something private. His room looked just as it had time I had been inside, with the addition of a few more pictures.

I walked around his room, and soon found his broom, propped in a proper broom stand. I searched the rest of the room for any sign of my broom, but came up empty. I had even looked under the bed, to no avail.

I was just about to leave to find Draco, when the knob turned and the door opened. Draco walked in, picking at his nails, unaware of my presence. When he looked up, he nearly jumped out of his skin.

“Damnit Emma, you scared me!” He said, out of breath, as though he had just run a mile.

“Sorry, I was looking for my broom, it wasn’t in my room, so I thought you might have brought it to yours. Where is it?” I asked.

His face fell, “Oh Emma, I’m sorry, I thought I told you. It was blown away, by the wind, after you fell, and it went straight into the Whomping Willow, it was destroyed.”

He followed me all the way back to my room. Shadow cocked his head at us as we entered.

“What am I supposed to do now?” I asked, “I haven’t got a broom!”

“We can get you a new broom,” Draco offered.

“No, I can get myself a new broom, its just, that broom was so new and it worked fantastically. And I was kind of attached to it.” I said glumly.

“If it makes you feel any better, Potter’s broom was destroyed too.” Draco said.

I sent him a glare, “It doesn’t.”

“Oh right,” He scoffed, “I forgot, you’re in love with Potter.”

“I am not!” I huffed, sitting on my bed, “And you know it.”

“Well until you get a new broom, you’ll have to borrow one of the extras from Madam Hooch, that’s what Potter has been doing, no idea why he hasn’t just gotten himself a new one already.”

“Yeah,” I groaned, ‘What has she got though, Clean Sweep fives?”

“Threes I think,” Draco corrected.

“Well I had better find her before practice, any idea where she might be?” I asked.

“Nope, just use your map.” Draco suggested.

Right! My map, I had nearly forgotten about it. I rushed over to my trunk and dug through it. Finally I pulled out the seemingly spare bit of parchment. I touched my wand tip to it and said, “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.” Nothing happened. I tried again, “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.” Still, nothing. I dug further into my trunk, no other bits of parchment were inside it.

_Shit!_ I had brought the wrong bit of parchment!

Shadow padded over to me and settled his gigantic head into my lap. I groaned again, “Ugh! Where are Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs when I need them?”

“At your house?” Draco tried at humor. In response, I threw my Slytherin scarf at him. “We had better go now, if you want to find Madam Hooch before the start of practice.”

***

Practice was dreadful without my trusty Nimbus. I was, no exaggerations included, slower than the snitch on the Clean Sweep Three. I was in desperate need of a new broom.

My Sneakoscope went off again, when I neared Ron, in Hagrid’s cabin. He was annoyed at me for being so cold with him and I was annoyed at him for being such an idiot. Even so, he was Harry’s best friend, so I dared not insinuate that he might not be all he seemed. Tea at Hagrid’s was uneventful. His fruitcakes were inedible and brick like as always. He had engulfed me in a bone crunching hug upon my arrived and doted on me throughout the entire visit.

Both Harry and I were struggling to order new brooms. So when Friday rolled around, we were in low spirits. This was not the way to go about fighting a dementor. Even if it was just a boggart pretending.

“Good evening you two!” Lupin greeted us cheerily. He looked worn down, tired. There were large bags beneath his eyes and he was incredibly pale and a little thinner than usual.

“Good evening!” I chimed back, putting on a façade of happiness.

“Are you both ready to do this?” Lupin asked. Harry and I nodded.

“Alright, so you both will take turns facing the boggart, it won’t be nearly as strong as a dementor, but it will still affect you. I have chocolate on hand, in case we need it. I need you both to come up with a happy memory, the happiest memory you can think of. Then you’ll need to concentrate on this memory when you preform the spell. Expecto Patronum. Now you say it.” We said it. He seemed satisfied. “Alright, Harry, you’ll go first. Have you got your happy memory?” He nodded and stepped forward, wand raised.

To sum it up in a few words, his attempt did not go well.

Then it was my turn, “Do you have your happy memory?”

“Yes,” As a matter of fact, I knew what my happiest memory was, it had been on my mind for the past two days, and finally, I had pinpointed it.

I stepped forward and raised my wand. As Lupin reopened the trunk, I gripped my wand tighter and focused with everything I had. I remembered my moment vividly. _I had been in the front gardens, digging, when I shouldn’t have. With Harry. Petunia had called Harry, ‘my brother’ while she was scolding us. In that moment, I had learned that I had a brother. Not only that, but my brother just happened to be my favorite person on the planet, my best friend._ I had been three, or maybe four, but even still, it was my happiest memory.

“Expecto Patronum!” I called out, thinking of Petunia’s words the entire time. _You cannot let your brother influence you to do such unladylike things! A silvery mist shot from my wand, pushing the dementor back, into the trunk._

I let out a laugh of excitement, at my success. “Well done,” Lupin praised me. “Ready to try again Harry?”

“Come on Harry! You’ve got this!” I said, trying urge him toward achieving a patronus.

It took two more attempts, but finally he got it. In that time, I had managed to form a vague outline of an animal. I couldn’t tell what it was, just yet, but a four legged something, most definitely.

“You two are brilliant, very quick studies.” Lupin complimented us the both of us.

Both of us feeling extremely satisfied, we beamed at him.

***

The next two weeks passed fairly quickly, and I looked forward to each Friday of practicing the patronus. Sometimes, Harry and I would even practice in empty classrooms together. It was easier to produce one without a dementor present, making it a good time to see the forms our patronuses took. Mine turned out to be a fox, Harry’s, a stag.

With the arrival of Christmas break, everyone was headed home to be with their families.

The only Slytherins who were staying besides me were Astoria and Daphne. Harry and Neville were staying from Gryffindor. Some seventh year Hufflepuff was staying as well and a quirky girl from Ravenclaw called Luna Lovegood. I had never spoken to Luna Lovegood, but I could recognize her in the corridors. She was a second year, with hair blonder than even Draco’s and a tendency to wear the oddest earrings I had ever seen.

Dudley would be back at Privet Drive for the winter holidays. Maybe it was a good idea for me to get Dudley a Christmas present.

I snuck down into the kitchens. I had never been down there before. As soon as I entered, I was greeted by dozens of house elves.

“Hi,” I said to the nearest one, “Do you think I could have some desserts to send home for my cousin, for the holidays?”

A grin spread across each of the house elves faces and they nodded enthusiastically. “What does your cousin be liking, Miss?” One of them asked me.

“Oh, er, he likes just about anything. But he’s a muggle, you see. So, he’s never had some of this stuff. Could you just pick out which ones you think are best?” I asked them.

Once again, they nodded, seemingly excited by the prospect of it.

I few minutes later, they brought me a basket filled to the brim with sweets of all kind. “Thank you all so much.”

“It was no problem, miss,” The chimed back in their high, squeaky voices, “Come back any time!”

“Thank you.”

Once I returned to my dorm room, I sat at my little desk to write Dudley a letter.

**Dear, Dudley**

**I hope this letter finds you well and in good spirits.Happy Christmas to you. I have attached some of the most exquisite desserts Hogwarts has to offer. I do hope you like them. Bad things are happening at Hogwarts (yet again) and I require your assistance. This may seem to be small, but I assure you, this is a very big deal. This can be the difference between life and death, so I implore you, don’t take this task lightly. There is a large scrap of apparently blank parchment, in reality, it is not blank, but it will look that way to you. It will be either in the closet beneath the stairs, or in Harry and my shared bedroom. Please, I am begging you, find it and send it back with my owl. Her name is Tambor and she is incredibly sweet. She will not try to bite you.**

**All my love,**

**Emma**

I sealed the letter and placed it in the basket. Tambor was a large owl, she would be able to handle the basket on her own.

“Could you bring this to Dudley for me? As fast as you can?” I asked her, giving her a treat.

She trilled happily and took off, from my room.

I looked to my little wall clock, it was nearly time for dinner. I decided to head up to the Great Hall.

On my way, I met Luna Lovegood.

“Hello, it’s Luna, right?”

She turned her dreamy stare onto me. “Oh yes. And I know you of course. You’re that Slytherin girl who was in the Chamber of Secrets with Harry Potter last year. You were meant to be in my year, but you were too smart for the rest of us.”

“You know, not maybe people know that I was in the Chamber.” I said, and it was true. Hardly anyone was aware of it.

“Ginny told me,” Luna explained.

“I didn’t know you were friends with Ginny.” I said, trying to make conversation.

“I don’t think she’s my friend, but she is nice to me, and she talks to me.” Luna said, gazing off dazedly into the distance.

“I like your earrings,” I complimented.

“You’re making fun of me,” She said, her head snapping back to examine me.

“No, I’m not, I really like them. What are they?”

“Dirigible Plums,” She said, seeming to decide that I wasn’t mocking her after all.

“Ah. Did you pierce your own ears physically? Or did you use a spell?” I asked, genuinely curious. I wanted to pierce my ears, but I had yet to come across a spell that would do it for me.

“My mum did it when I was little. It’s a different spell for different parts of the body. For my ears it was _aures perforatum_ and for your nose its _nasum perforatum_ and then for the rest of you, I’m not sure. You’d have to check the library if you wanted to do your belly button or lips or tongue.”

“Thanks, aures perforatum, I’ll have to remember that one.” I said.

“Oh and you’ll have to get the earrings, it just makes the holes, then you have to put your own earrings in. It pinches a little too.” Luna added, “But there’s a little shop in Hogsmeade that sells earrings. On the next visit, I could show it to you.”

“Thanks, that would be great.” I said.

“You are being awfully nice to me, compared to the other Slytherins I have encountered.” Luna said.

I had no idea how I was supposed to respond to that, so we walked the rest of the way in silence. I really did want my ears pierced. I had always wanted my ears pierced, but Vernon and Petunia would never allow it. They wouldn't waste their money on something like that, not for me.

When I entered the Great Hall, I found that the house tables were gone, to be replaced by one, smaller table. The staff table was gone as well, and I froze as I saw the staff, sitting at the table where we were supposed to sit. Luna, however continued on, walking serenely forward and taking a seat, beside Snape.

“Good evening Professor Snape,” She said.

He gave her a peculiar look and replied in a drawl, that only he could pull off, “Good evening Miss Lovegood.”

“Have you gotten the Nargles out of your gillyweed yet?” She asked him as Neville entered the hall.

I tried hard to keep from laughing. Neville took the seat across from Luna. “Luna, Emma.” He greeted.

“Good to see you Neville!” I said, grinning.

“And you, how are you feeling? That was a bad fall.”

“I feel great, Madam Pomfrey and Professor Snape fixed me right up.” I said, turning my attention to Snape, who was busy explaining to Luna, that there were no Nargles in his gillyweed.

Harry came in next and sat beside me. I hadn’t had the chance to talk to him since last Friday, so after checking our audience (Luna was immersed in conversation with Snape and Neville was watching on with interest) I leaned over and gave him a hug. I still hadn’t told him what Draco had told me about Sirius Black. I knew I needed to tell him, but I didn’t want to. I feared that he might go off and do something stupid if he knew the truth.

“You alright?” Harry asked me, when we parted.

“Yeah, there’s just, something I’ve got to tell you, after dinner. You can come back to the Slytherin common rooms with me. I’ll tell you there.” I whispered into his ear.

“Emma?” A voice asked and I drew back from Harry and looked around. Daphne and Astoria.

“Daphne! Astoria!” I said, a tad too loudly. The Hufflepuff seventh year took the last available seat, which happened to be the head of the table, opposite Hagrid.

“Ah, I do believe that this is everyone.” Dumbledore said cheerily, “Let’s tuck in!”

And the food appeared in an instant.

The whole time we ate, Daphne was watching me, eyes narrowed in suspicion. Part way through the meal she asked, “So Emma, Potter, you’re friends?”

“Er, yeah, I guess,” Harry said, awkwardly.

“Right, Harry, this is Daphne Greengrass and her sister, Astoria.” I said, apologetically, “They’re both Slytherins too.”

“Nice to, uh, meet you,” He said.

“I heard that you’ve been having secret meetings with Emma, every Friday night.” Daphne said, narrowing her eyes at Harry.

Snape’s head snapped in our direction. I glanced over at him and then turned back to Daphne, “Oh my god! You sound like Draco, as I told you both, Professor Lupin has been teaching Harry and I how to produce patronuses to ward off dementors. You know, so we don’t have a repeat of the Quidditch match.” Daphne still looked skeptical. I knew she was only acting like this because she liked Harry, but still it was annoying. “What are you trying to insinuate here?”

Finally, she backed off, “Nothing.”

“I didn’t know you were teaching Mr. Potter and Miss. Evans how to create patronuses,” Snape said to Lupin.

“Nor, did I,” Interjected Dumbledore, “And how have they done with this task?”

“Very well, we have been using the boggart to simulate a diluted dementor. Both of their patronuses have taken form.” Lupin said with a smile.

“Really?” Snape asked, “Already? Emma hasn’t been awake for very long.”

“Yes, both of them were able to successfully produce patronuses within the first hour of practicing,” Lupin said, “They’re very fast learners.”

“And what were your patronuses?” Dumbledore asked us.

“Mine is a fox and Harry’s is a stag.” I answered.

Something in Snape’s expression twitched at my words.

“I hope you don’t mind, but I fancy a kip, so I’ll be off then.” I said, standing from the table, “Good night everyone, Luna, thanks for the help, Daphne, thanks for the interrogation. Astoria, I hope you’re well, we’ll need to catch up soon, yeah? Neville, the same to you. Harry, uh, yeah, er, Hufflepuff, I’m sorry, I don’t know your name. Good night Professors.”

I had just about reached the doors when someone caught my arm and whirled me around, “Melvin Catterick.” It was the seventh year Hufflepuff.

“What?” I asked, perplexed.

“My name, it’s Melvin Catterick.” He said, grinning broadly at me.

I gave him a friendly pat on the arm, “Thanks, I’ll be sure to, uh, say hi if I, uh, if I see you in the halls.”

“Okay, I’ll say hi to you too.” He replied before happily bouncing off towards his common room. _Hufflepuffs were so weird._

I hurried to the Slytherin common room and waited just outside, for Harry.

He arrived after a few minutes.

We went inside and settled down onto a sofa. “So, what did you need to tell me?”

I inhaled deeply, trying to mentally prepare myself for what I was about to say. I exhaled slowly and began, “Draco’s father, got some intel from the Ministry, about Sirius Black. His past. During his time at Hogwarts, Black was-”

Just then, the portrait hole began to open again. _Daphne and Astoria._

I grabbed Harry’s wrist and pulled him onto the girl’s staircase. I could hear Astoria and Daphne’s voices growing nearer. “Come on,” I hissed and dragged him to the third year’s floor.

I closed the door to my bedroom behind us.

“You get your own room?!” He gasped.

“Yeah,” I said distractedly. my eyes had drifted to my bed. Tambor was standing there, covered in a light dusting of snow and holding out her leg expectantly at me. Attached to it was a large scrap of very old parchment. “When I said ‘as fast as you can’ I didn’t expect you to manage the trip in less than five hours.” I murmured in awe of her. And Dudley had pulled through for me. No note was attached, I suspected she had taken off as soon as he had tied the map to her. I quickly grabbed a treat for her.

Shadow was snoozing in the corner of my room, he refused to sleep on my bed for some odd reason. Latte and Emmett were curled together on my pillow. None of them stirred at Harry and my entrance.

“Does everyone get their own room?” Harry asked.

“Yeah,” I said, still not really paying attention, “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.” My heart leapt as the parchment reacted and ink began to appear everywhere, expanding to form an intricate map of the castle and grounds, complete with the location of every person inside.

“I have to share a dorm with every boy in my year!” He exclaimed.

“Oh you love it,” I teased. But then I saw something that made my heart fail, “Get out!” I screamed to Harry. Latte, Emmett and Shadow jolted awake. “Out!”

And the magic of the room activated and he was forced from the room.

“Emma, what?” Harry asked, annoyance, hurt and confusion bleeding into the two words.

“Go!” I hollered and he was shoved back further, down the hall. Down the stairs. Out of the girl’s area completely.

Distantly I heard, “Potter, what the hell?” From Daphne. I could picture her sitting with her sister. Standing abruptly at seeing Harry exiting the girl’s side. I slammed my door and turned around, forcing myself to confront the situation at hand.

For, just now, Daphne’s inquisitive glares, were the least of my worries.

Because, Shadow, he wasn’t Shadow. He was Sirius Black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha. So yeah, I got kind of carried away with this one. Sorry it’s so long! I don’t think the further chapters will be quite as long but the lengths will start to vary a little more than they have in the past. So consider this as your warning. I hope you liked it! Leave comments and kudos! Stay tuned for the next chapter!


	10. Sirius Black

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Enjoy!

I turned on Shadow, and pulled my wand, pointed it at him.

“Come on,” I spat, “Do it yourself.” _Nothing._ He didn’t move. “Don’t make me do it!” He cocked his head at me and whimpered. “Fine! Esse homines!”

I took a shuttering breath, as Shadow became the mass murderer, convicted criminal, Sirius Black. The man before me looked nothing like the mugshot that had been in the Daily Prophet. Sirius Black was clean, his hair was cut to his shoulders and shampooed. His face was no longer sunken, his bones no longer jutted out at odd angles. He looked healthy. He looked... like the man holding Harry in that picture.

“Emma,” He took a step forward, and his voice, _goddamn me_ , didn’t sound like that of a killer.

“Oh no,” I waved my wand threateningly at him, “You stay over there.”

“Emma please, let me explain.” He begged.

“How did you meet my father?” I asked. Even I was surprised. _Why was that the first question that came to mind?_

“I met both of your parents at the same time, on the Hogwarts Express, before the start of my first year. It happened by chance. I was in a compartment alone and then your dad came in and sat across from me. Neither of us said anything to either other. We hardly even looked at each other. Then these two other first years came in, it was your mum and Sniv- Snape.

“Snape and Lily were talking and then they brought up the four houses. James and I got to talking, and to insulting Snape. Snape and Lily left, and then it was just your dad and I. We didn’t stop talking, the whole rest of the way. And we were friends ever since. I’ve seen your photo album, so I’ll answer that question before you ask, Peter and Remus joined us a few days into the first term.” A smile played across his lips as he reminisced.

“So, if you were such fast friends, and good friends if the pictures are any indication, then why, pray tell, did you betray my dad. My parents?” I hissed.

“Have you ever heard the saying, ‘Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket?’” He asked. I nodded. “They all think that I was your parent’s secret keeper. And I was. But I didn’t hold the secret to their whereabouts, no. I held the secret of your existence. You’ve realized that bit, I’m sure. But your parents, they didn’t want to force everything onto me. I would have gladly kept all of their secrets, I would have died to protect them, but no. They didn’t want all their eggs in one basket. Remus was away, on order business, so that left Peter. He became their secret keeper, but everyone just assumed it was me. I came from the bad family of death eater supporters, I was James’ best friend, it was easy for them to point the finger at me.

“And then I went after Peter. Of course I did! He had betrayed my best friend, gotten him killed! Gotten Lily killed, and, believe me, she was my friend too! I loved them both! So I went after Peter. If he had been tortured, I would never forgive him. But if he had gone to Voldemort and betrayed them willingly, then I was going to kill him!”

“So you blew up and entire street? Killed innocent muggle bystanders, just to get your revenge?” I interrupted, near hysterics.

“No! I didn’t kill anybody. In my entire life, I have never killed a single person!” He said.

“Then explain, more.” I had no idea what I believed, but I did know, I wanted to hear his version, whether it was the truth or fiction.

“I confronted Peter, in an alleyway. And he started screaming about how I had betrayed Lily and James. Screaming at me, calling me a traitor. Then he put his wand behind his back, blew up the street behind him, cut off his finger, turned into a rat and escaped into the sewers.” Black was nearly shouting now.

“Turned into a rat?” I asked.

“Yes, you’ve seen that I became an animagus. Well, James, Peter and I all did it together while we were in school, so we could be with Remus during the full moon.” Black explained.

What? None of that made any sense. Why would he need to be an animal, to be with Remus during the... full moon? Unless... “Lupin is a werewolf.”

Black nodded.

“And your form is a giant dog, Peter’s was a rat, and my dad?”

“A stag.” Like Harry’s patronus.

“So, Peter screamed for a whole street of witnesses, that you were the traitor, then blew up the street behind him, and escaped as a rat?” I asked, trying to puzzle it out. But for that, I needed all the pieces.

“Yes, and he cut off his finger.” Black added.

“But why would he...” Then I understood, “The biggest bit of him they found was his finger.”

“Precisely,” Black said.

“So, you’re not a death eater.”

He pulled up his sleeve, “No mark. But Wormtail’s got one.”

“Wormtail?”

“Peter, Wormtail was his nickname.”

“Wormtail. Wait! You made the map! The four of you were the Marauders! Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs!”

“Yes.”

“Why would Peter betray my parents?”

“He’s cowardly, he always hangs around whomever he thinks can protect him. That’s why he was with James. Remus and I. We were the best in the school. We could protect him, and we did. But when Voldemort came around, things changed. Suddenly, Wormtail was safer with Voldemort than with us. Voldemort was more powerful than all of us combined, because he used dark magic and we refused to.” Sirius Black growled, sounding very doglike indeed.

Suddenly something clicked in my brain, and I backed slowly to my photo album, keeping my eyes locked on Black. I flipped towards the end, to the picture of the Marauders with my heavily pregnant mother. Sirius was wearing a t-shirt, that revealed his bare forearm. No mark. I looked to the sick looking Peter. He was wearing long sleeves. His arm explained everything. It wasn’t who we thought. There, at the cuff of his left sleeve was... something. Definitely the bottom of a tattoo. Could it be the dark mark, branded into his skin?

“You refused to use dark magic?” I asked, “Then how, did you manage to escape from Azkaban?”

“No one there knew I was an unregistered animagus, Remus never gave me away, so I was able to slip away as a dog when the dementors brought me my food. I swam back to the mainland and then of course, I went to you and Harry. If I was guilty, then how come I haven’t killed either of you! I’ve had ample opportunity, I didn’t touch you!” He said.

I narrowed my eyes, and pulled my Sneakoscope from my pocket, it had not activated around Shadow, ever, nor was it active now.

“Can you tell me why, this has been going off around Harry’s friend, Ron?” I asked, tossing it back and forth between my hands. But even as the words came out, I knew the answer. Ron had a pet rat, Scabbers. Sirius Black had been able to masquerade around as my pet, could Peter Pettigrew be doing the same? “That rat is Pettigrew?”

“Yes!” Sirius Black said, excited by my apparent belief. I still had no idea what to believe, I was trying to close every hole in his story, get the entire picture, solve the puzzle.

“This whole time, you’ve been trying to kill Peter Pettigrew? And you’ve been trying to get my pets and Crookshanks to help you?” I asked.

“Not to kill, to capture, I want my freedom back. I’m Harry’s godfather, you know? And I was supposed to be your guardian, if anything happened to your parents. I was supposed to care for you both, raise you both.”

“Stay here,” I said, and backed out of my room, “Protego! And don’t do anything stupid.”

I closed the door behind me and headed down to the common room.

Daphne was standing there, waiting for me, her arms crossed, “If you like him, just tell me, don’t lie about it.”

“Look, Daphne, I swear to you, I’m not lying. I don’t like him, not like that. He’s my-” I couldn’t finish the sentence, no matter how hard I tried, the words wouldn’t pass my lips. Though it was my secret to tell, I was not its keeper, I couldn’t share it. “...friend.”

“Right.” Daphne said, dully.

***

I decided not to do anything or tell anyone anything until after Christmas break. Once Ron returned with his rat, Black’s story would either be confirmed or denied.

I busied myself by catching up with Neville and Astoria in the library. It turned out they quite liked each other and both had a thing for herbology. Astoria even felt comfortable enough with Neville to express her feelings for the second year Gryffindor named Colin Creevey.

I vaguely remembered him as being one of the petrification victims.

The days passed so slowly that I couldn’t be sure time wasn’t moving backwards.

I was too frightened to return to my room, after the first time. And the first time had been incredibly brief. I had told Black to turn back into a dog and to stay that way. I had taken down the shield charm and grabbed Tambor, Emmett and Latte. The shield charm was back up in an instant. Then I had returned to the kitchens and asked for one house elf to apparate directly into my room to give ‘my dog’ food and water three times a day. The house elf had agreed most graciously.

Ever since, I had been sleeping in Draco’s vacant room.

***

Harry didn’t dare confront me while others were around. So I surrounded myself constantly with other people. Unfortunately this didn’t stand for the Friday after Christmas. The start of next term was just around the corner, but I had my dementor lesson with Harry and Lupin.

Harry and I had been bugging Lupin to let us practice on a real dementor, which he had adamantly refused on multiple occasions. But Harry, the stubborn git that he was, was at it again.

“Professor Lupin, we’ve both mastered this stage of practice, don’t you think that we’re ready for a to face dementor?” Harry asked, innocently.

“Harry, you’ve received my answer already.” Lupin said, then clarified, “No.”

“But-” Harry continued.

“Goodnight, Harry, Emma. You’ve done very well.” Lupin interjected.

Harry walked to the door, but paused when I didn’t follow.

“You coming, Em?” He asked.

“Not just yet, I have something to discuss with Professor Lupin,” I said.

Harry left reluctantly. “So, what would you like to discuss?” Lupin asked, settling himself against the edge of his desk.

“Sirius Black.” I said, “I just don’t understand, how he could have done what he did. To my parents, to all of the marauders.”

“The marauders?” Lupin asked, turning to face me more fully.

“Yes, I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but I have come to process your map. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs. I’m guessing your monthly excursions gifted you the nickname ‘Moony.’ And then the others got theirs because of their animagi forms.”

“How do you know that?” He asked, he seemed vaguely worried.

“That’s not the point of this conversation. I just want to know if Sirius was acting odd at all before my parents died? Did he do anything out of the ordinary? I know it was twelve years ago, but please, think.” I pleaded with him.

“No,” Lupin said, after a long silence, “He didn’t act any differently at all.”

I nodded, “Thank you.”

I turned to leave, but then, “Emma wait, how do you know what I am, what we all were?” I paused.

“That’s for me to know, and you to find out, soon. I swear it.” And then I was gone from the room.

Much to my dismay, Harry was waiting for me.

“So, what happened the other night?” Harry asked. _Jumping right in, I see._

“Nothing, don’t worry about it.” I said, walking faster, trying to shake, though I knew the effort was futile.

“Emma, don’t lie to me. You and I both know that that isn’t true. You were being all secretive and wanted to tell me something, and then something happened and you changed your mind.” Harry said, “Just tell me.”

“I will tell you, I promise,” I was making a lot of promises, ones that I wasn’t sure I could keep. “I just can’t yet, not until I have all of the information. Before, when I was going to tell you, I thought I had the whole story. I thought I was ready to tell you, but I wasn’t. I was seeing a fifty piece puzzle. Turns out the puzzle is one thousand pieces and I haven’t gotten all of them yet. But I’m working on it, and I’m almost there. Soon enough, I’ll have enough pieces to discern the picture they’re creating.” I ranted on, my metaphor spinning away from me.

“Er, right.” He seemed confused, but it got him to back down, the promise that he would know the truth soon. “When will you tell me?”

“In one week.” I said. That would be plenty of time for me to figure out if Peter Pettigrew was in fact parading around the castle under the guise of Ron’s pet rat, Scabbers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Please remember to leave comments and kudos. I’m not sure if I will be able to update every day, swim practices have started up again (Yay!!!) so I won’t have as much free time. But I’ll do my best.


	11. Early Winter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry this is so late guys! I cannot believe myself! Being nine hours late is unacceptable and I will try to be on time with every chapter in the future. Again, I as truly sorry, so here is the chapter. In my rush to get it out, it is unbetaed at the moment. It will be betaed very soon.

Everyone who had gone home for the holidays, returned on January second, the day before the start of the new term. I had been forced to return to my room. SIrius Black was still there. I confined him to a corner with a new shield charm. But now, with everyone here, this was my chance.

So, late that night, once everyone was in their dorms, I looked to the map. I quickly located the third year Gryffindor boy’s dorm. Sure enough, there were six names listed there.

Dean Thomas. Seamus Finnigan. Neville Longbottom. Harry Potter. Ronald Weasley. And... Peter Pettigrew.

And finally, I believed Sirius Black was telling the truth.

“Latte, Emmett, Tambor,” I said, all three turned in my direction. They were all so incredibly smart. “Can you three do something for me?” They all perked up, eager. “I need you to get me Ron’s rat, Scabbers, and bring him to me. Don’t kill him, if you can help it. And be careful, don’t get yourselves stuck anywhere.” I opened the door and they left hurriedly. I hoped they would be successful. I shut the door softly behind me and faced Sirius.

“As soon as they get Peter, I’m ending this.” I said.

He shifted into his human form, his clothes melting out of his fur, it was disconcerting as always. “What are you going to do?”

“You’ll see.”

“Let me help, I can get him.” Sirius pleaded.

“No.”

“But-”

“No. Patience is a virtue.”

“We tend to lose the sense of virtues in Azkaban.”

“Well, then this is good practice.”

He growled, but there was no malice behind it.

***

At three in the morning, I woke to scratching and meowing at my bedroom door. I stumbled blindly to it and yanked it open, revealing Latte, Emmett, Crookshanks and Tambor waiting for me. Tambor had a wriggling something in her mouth. Scabbers.

“Come on,” I hissed. Black didn’t move. I prodded the sleeping dog with my wand and finally he stirred. “Come on.” He lifted one sleepy eye and glared blearily at me. “We’ve got Pettigrew, we’re going to Dumbledore now!”

Sirius jolted into alertness and stood. I removed the shield charm and off we went.

I took the Marauder’s Map along to ensure I didn’t run into any unwelcome visitors, but the path ahead remained clear.

What an odd party we would have been, me, tailed by three cats, a dog and a large owl with a live rat clutched in her beak by the tail.

We arrived at a sort of problem upon reaching the gargoyle. When I said, “Lemon drop.” It remained still, unmoving. The password must have changed. I wracked my brain for any hint at what it could be. I started guessing random sweets, and then, after what felt like forever, the gargoyle leapt aside.

My little entourage paraded up the stairs and into his office. I was shocked to find light streaming through the crack between the door and floor. I knocked loudly and a voice answered, “Come in.”

I opened the door and walked inside.

“Ah, Emma what a pleasant surprise. Though I do believe it is rather late, is something the matter?” Dumbledore asked kindly.

“I, er, I have something to tell you.” I said, nervous, now that we were face to face.

“Go on, my dear girl.” Dumbledore urged.

“Well, I have spoken with, I talked to Sirius Black,” I said stupidly. That was not how I had wanted to start this conversation.

Dumbledore, however, seemed quite calm, “Have you now? And what, may I ask, did you speak about?”

“He told me he was innocent.” I said.

“And do you believe him?”

“Yes, er, I think so.” And then added, “Peter Pettigrew is alive.”

Dumbledore’s eyes widened minutely, “What?”

“He’s an animagus, sir. He’s, uh, he’s the rat.” I gestured to the rat dangling from Tambor’s beak.

“Have you spoken to Peter?”

“No, not yet. He hasn’t been human yet.” I explained, “They just caught him.”

“I think it might do to have a conversation with him, find out why he hasn’t alerted us to his survival.”

“I know why, sir.”

“And?” Dumbledore prompted.

“It’s because he was Lily and James’s secret keeper and he betrayed them to Voldemort, then he blamed Sirius. But since he was the reason Voldemort fell and he betrayed the resistance, both sides would want him dead, if they knew the truth of what had happened, so he framed Sirius. The easy target, best friend of James and brother to a death eater. Born from a family of muggle haters and Voldemort supporters.” I said, tugging at my fingers, nervously.

“I see.” Dumbledore said, “And do you know where Sirius Black is now?”

“Yes.” Before continuing, I pointed my wand at the rat, with Tambor promptly dropped, “Esse Humines.” And then Peter Pettigrew was standing before us. Dumbledore stood from his chair, pushing it back and nearly tipping it. With a wave of his wand, the door behind me, shut and locked. “Okay, Sirius, come on out, we have a lot of explaining to do.” I muttered below my breath, but I knew, as a dog, he could hear me.

And then he was standing next to me.

“Sirius!” Peter squeaked. He was very thin and much less handsome than he had been, life as a rat, really had taken its toll on him, especially as of late. “Oh, Sirius, my old friend, its good to see you!” Sirius growled. “And who are you, pretty girl?” He drew near to me, reaching out to me.

“Don’t you dare touch her!” Sirius growled as I raised my wand and Peter flinched away.

Dumbledore conjured three chairs and said, “Why don’t you all sit down, we have much to discuss.”

So, Sirius and I explained, and explained, and explained. Peter mainly just whimpered, shouted about how ‘it wasn’t true’ and he was ‘innocent’ and we were ‘liars’, and shook a lot.

Dumbledore listened intently and didn’t interrupt. When we finished, Dumbledore nodded and smiled at Sirius. He stood and waved his wand. “I have sent a message to the ministry, there will likely be a trial and then Sirius, I assure you, you will be pardoned.” Dumbledore turned to Peter, his eyes stern, “I can’t, however, say the same for you.” Peter whimpered.

Dumbledore waved his wand again and ropes spun out of it, they wound themselves all around Peter, rendering him completely immobile.

“Someone from the ministry will be here soon, so you ought to make yourself scarce.” Dumbledore said, “I think it would be best, for you to keep attention away from yourself.”

I nodded and hurried from the room.

I ran straight to the Gryffindor portrait hole. Sir Cadogan stood, alert, within his portrait. Only then, did I realize, I did not possess the password.

I would have to enter the common room through another mean, “Sir Cadogan, I have heard you enjoy a good quest.” He had helped Harry get to his first divination class. “And I have been given a quest. I am on the hunt for a certain treasure. It resides on the other side of this portrait. But I need your help, to get inside. Can you help me?”

He contemplated for a moment, and finally said, “I never could turn down a good quest! But, what can I do?”

“It’s really simple, just, tell me the password.” I said softly, in a tone that I hoped sounded conspiratorial.

“Okay, but you can’t tell anyone, it’s a secret.” He said, taking up the same tone. I nodded and he said, “It’s Quidditch.”

“Quidditch.” And the portrait swung open to reveal the Gryffindor’s common room within, “Thanks.”

I ran up the boy’s steps and continued up until I reached the third door. I pushed it open and ran inside. Then I realized my mistake. In the Slytherin common room, the boy’s staircase was on the right, but not here, for this, was the girl’s dorm rooms. I quickly backtracked and headed up the opposite staircase.

I crossed over to Harry’s trunk and dug through it until I found what I was looking for; The invisibility cloak. I crept out of the room slowly, making sure not to wake any of the sleeping boys.

_It would be so easy to murder Harry, if that was my intention._ Dumbledore really needed to work on the security around Hogwarts.

I knew a ministry official would have likely arrived by now, so I needed to hurry. I sprinted along the corridors until I reached the gargoyle that led to Dumbledore’s office. I threw the cloak over myself and seconds later, I heard voices from around the corner. Then there were three people, rounding the corner and coming up the corridor. They stopped at the gargoyle and I was able to recognize one of them as the minister himself; Cornelius Fudge.

They said the password and the gargoyle slid out of the way, granting them access. I slid in nimbly, just before the path resealed itself.

Dumbledore explained the situation to the ministry officials. The two women seemed convinced by Dumbledore’s words, but Fudge still seemed uncertain. He kept eyeing Sirius, suspiciously.

One of the women said, “Right, well Pettigrew will be taken into custody and Black will be placed into parole under the supervision of a trusted witch or wizard. Dumbledore, do you have any suggestions?”

“Yes, I do. I believe it would be best for Sirius to remain here, in the castle. Professors McGonagall, Snape, Lupin, and myself can all keep an eye on him.” Dumbledore suggested.

The witch nodded and said, “If there is nothing else to discuss, then we had best be going, Pettigrew will be taken directly to Azkaban and the dementors will be removed from Hogsmeade.”

“Thank you.” Dumbledore smiled kindly and the three ministry officials left with Pettigrew in tow.

As soon as they were gone, I ripped off the cloak. Both Sirius and Dumbledore were unfazed by this.

Sirius turned to Dumbledore, “I was glad to see that that made its way to the next generation. And not just because it’s how they got me to Hogwarts.

Dumbledore smiled, a certain twinkle in his eyes, as he surveyed us from behind his half moon spectacles. “There is much still to be done, before this is finished. I suggest we begin with telling Remus what is going on.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I how you liked it, despite the lateness. Life is finally starting up for me again so I don’t have all day everyday to write anymore. But I will still try to update daily. Please leave comments and kudos.


	12. The Truth Can Be Tricky

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry to be late again. I had to set up the fish tank for my betta sorority and prepare for my job interview tomorrow afternoon! Hope you like the chapter.

“Emma, it may be best if you accompany Sirius and I,” Dumbledore said. “He may believe quicker with you there.” I nodded and followed them out of the room. When we reached the bottom of the stairs, Dumbledore said, “Sirius, it may be for the best if you put on the cloak back on until we arrive at Remus’s quarters.” Without a word, I handed Sirius the cloak and he tugged it over himself. It was eerie, in a way, watching him disappear beneath it.

We made the journey in silence. The corridors were no longer empty. What time was it? I was so distracted that we were nearly to the Great Hall before I realized where we were going. I was shocked to find the tables half full. That meant it was at least seven in the morning. I crossed the hall with Dumbledore, doing my best to avoid the gazes of any of my friends.

“Professor Lupin,” Dumbledore greeted, “There is something we have to discuss. But not here, your office, perhaps?” Lupin stood slowly.

“Of course.” He glanced at me questioningly. I just shook my head. Not here. As soon as we were in the confines of Lupin’s office, Lupin asked, “What’s happened? Is everything alright?”

I didn’t know where to begin, this was different from telling Dumbledore. This was... more personal. Luckily, I didn’t have to say anything. For, Sirius had just pulled off the cloak, revealing himself.

Dumbledore and I didn’t so much as flinch. Lupin on the other hand had pulled out his wand and pushed me behind him. His eyes were hard, angry and... a little sad. Sirius just looked sad.

“Professor!” I shouted, grabbing his wand arm. “It’s okay, he’s innocent! He didn’t betray my parents, he didn’t betray anyone. It was Peter Pettigrew! He’s alive, Sirius didn’t kill him, nor did he blow up that street. It was all Peter! The ministry took him into custody. There’s going to be a trial. Sirius was put on parole. He’s staying here. He’s been here this entire year, with me.”

Lupin gaped at me for several long seconds, before slowly turning his head back to face Sirius.

“I didn’t do it Moony, I swear.” Sirius whispered, “I would rather die than betray my friends.”

Lupin looked to Dumbledore, “Peter’s alive? You’ve seen him?”

“Yes, indeed. Peter has been living as the Weasley’s pet rat for the past twelve years. He was in my office, just a few hours ago. The ministry has taken him and he will be going Azkaban to await the trial.” Dumbledore explained calmly.

Lupin was watching Sirius again, and when Dumbledore finished speaking, Lupin was across the room, embracing Sirius.

I picked up the cloak from the floor and then slipped out of the room with Dumbledore, they deserved their privacy.

Once in the hall, I said, “I think something needs to be changed with the Gryffindor common room security.”

“Oh?” Dumbledore asked.

“Well I was able to convince the portrait to tell me the password, so I could get this.” I said, holding up the invisibility cloak.

That twinkle vanished from Dumbledore’s eyes in an instant. “That is a problem. I was worried something like this would happen with Sir Cadogan in charge. I’ll have to see if we can reappoint the Fat Lady to the position.”

“The Fat Lady?” I asked.

“She was the previous guardian of the Gryffindors, but Sirius slashed up her portrait when she wouldn’t let him in. Then she was too afraid to do it. I’ll have to have Sirius apologize and then maybe she’ll come back.” Dumbledore said, the twinkle returning. “Let’s go tell McGonagall now.”

We headed back into the Great Hall, which was now entirely full. As I entered with the Headmaster for the second time that morning, all eyes turned to us. We walked up to the staff table and Dumbledore instructed McGonagall to come with us. All eyes followed as we exited with yet another teacher.

“What is it?” Professor McGonagall asked.

“I am going to call a staff meeting in a bit, where I will explain everything. But, for now, there is a different matter we must discuss. Emma here, was able to get into the Gryffindor common room without the password.”

“What how?” McGonagall’s eyes were wide as she looked at me.

“I convinced Sir Cadogan to give me the password, it was really easy, I told him I had a quest that needed completing. Neville also told me that Cadogan changes the password five times a day and only tells one person that he’s changed it, so by the time the new one has gotten around to everyone, it’s changed again.” I recited what Neville had told Astoria and I in the library.

McGonagall looked positively horrified. She stormed all the way up to the portrait and began screaming shrilly at Cadogan for ‘endangering the students’. Her horror morphed into anger when Sir Cadogan said he would have allowed Sirius entry should he have been on a quest or should he have had the password. “I promise you Dumbledore, he will be gone by the day’s end!” McGonagall swore loudly.

“Wonderful,” Dumbledore said jovially, “Now, I am cancelling classes for the day. There has been a major development with Sirius Black and I need all of the teachers in the staff room immediately. Minerva, if you could go and fetch them for me?”

“Of course, but what’s happened?” McGonagall asked.

“I will tell you at the meeting.” Dumbledore promised. McGonagall hesitated for a moment before walking away, presumably to the Great Hall. “Emma, could you get Harry, I do believe that you both should be a part of this. I am going to go fetch Sirius and Remus.”

“Yeah,” I said, before hurrying off after Professor McGonagall.

When I entered the Great Hall everyone turned to look at me again. I ignored their stares and walked briskly over to the Gryffindor table. I quickly located Harry and slid down beside him.

“Come with me,” I began, “I promised I would tell you what was going on. And now, I’ve got enough pieces of the puzzle. I can share the bigger picture.”

“Now?” He asked, standing, “It hasn’t been a week though.”

“I know, but I’ve finished figuring things out.” I said. I opened my mouth to continue, but then Professor McGonagall was calling for attention.

“All classes for today have been cancelled. There has been a development with Sirius Black. There will be a staff meeting and we will get back to you with more information. The staff meeting will begin at nine o’clock.” She finished, sitting back down.

Hermione turned to Harry, “I wonder if the development is that Sirius did send you that broom.”

“What broom?” I asked.

“Harry got a Firebolt for Christmas anonymously. McGonagall took it for testing.” Hermione answered.

“It could have been him.” I mused, thinking hard. I was out for a month, that would have been plenty of time for him to sneak out of the castle, buy it, and return.

“See! Exactly!” Hermione burst, glaring at Ron.

“Even if he did send a cursed broom, that doesn’t excuse the fact that your cat killed Scabbers!” Ron bellowed.

“Maybe you two should come to the staff meeting too.” I said, standing.

“What? We can’t, it’s for teachers.” Hermione cried.

“Don’t worry, we aren’t sneaking in. Dumbledore asked me to fetch Harry, he wants the both of us there, but I think this concerns you too. At least it definitely concerns Ron. And anything that concerns Harry and Ron automatically concerns you too, Hermione.” I said. “I don’t think Dumbledore would disagree.”

I stood and the three of them followed suit. As I left the hall, I couldn’t help but look to the Slytherin table. Draco was staring at me, and sitting awfully close to Daphne. I forced thoughts, of the things she might be telling him, from my mind.

The four of us hurried to the staff room. Professor Burbage, Flitwick, Sprout and McGonagall were already there. Snape swept in next, then came Dumbledore. “Ah, Miss Granger, Mr. Weasley.” Dumbledore said, smiling.

“Sorry Professor,” I apologized, “I thought Ron should be here, since it’s his rat, and well Hermione is Ron and Harry’sbest friend... I thought it made sense.” I finished lamely.

“Yes, indeed, it does.” Dumbledore said, “They can stay. Now, if everyone can sit down, we are just waiting on a few staff members.”

I moved to the table and took a seat between Harry and Snape. The remainder of the teachers trickled in until only two empty seats were left. I knew them to be for Professor Lupin and Sirius. But no one else knew that Sirius would actually be joining us.

So, when Lupin entered, followed by the convicted murderer, the room became a blurry of motion.

Snape was up in an instant, his wand raised, and arm out, shielding Harry and I. McGonagall had done the same for Ron and Hermione. Every other teacher had their wand raised towards Black as well. Casually Lupin side stepped in front of Sirius. Only Dumbledore and I had remained sitting. Even Ron, Harry and Hermione had stood, but only Harry had gotten his wand out.

“Stand down,” Dumbledore said calmly, “It’s fine. He wont hurt anyone, and in any case, he hasn’t got a wand.” No one moved. “He is innocent.” Dumbledore said, insistent, this time.

Finally the teachers lowered their wands, all except for Snape. He was glaring at Sirius with such ferocity that he seemed intent on burning holes straight through his skull.

I stood and moved out of Snape’s protective shadow. I turned to face him. “Professor, it’s alright, he’s innocent. We’ll explain everything but we can’t do that if you won;’t even let him in the room.”

His eyes shifted to meet mine and after a long moment, he lowered his wand and sat back down. I followed suit, as did the rest of the room. Sirius and Remus took on the last two chairs and then we began to explain everything.

The whole story was told and teachers had come to believe it, even Snape. Ron was in absolute horror upon finding out the true identity of his beloved rat. He seemed to be insulted by that little truth.

At the end of the meeting, Hermione asked, “Mr. Black, did you send Harry the Firebolt?”

“Yeah, when Emma was in the hospital wing I travelled to Diagon Alley and bought two of them, one for each of them. I gave them to the house elves with the rest of the gifts and they appeared with everything else on Christmas. Of course, now I’ve spoiled Emma’s Christmas present, seeing as she hasn’t touched them yet.” He gave me a smile. I hadn’t even noticed the pile, lurking in some corner. To be fair though, I had been preoccupied, and I had slept in Draco’s room every night and not dared to venture to my own.

“Ha!” Hermione burst, “I told you!”

Ron glowered at her, “Is that really important Hermione? And any how, he didn’t curse it, did he?” Harry just looked exasperated by the pair of them.

As I was laughing, Peeves swooped into the room. “Moony, moony, looney, looney, moony. Moony, moony-“ He broke off, mid chant. And then broke into a wide grin, “Padsee! Padsee, Padsee, Padfoot!” He swooped in excited circles, “Padsee, Padsee, Padfoot, backy backy, back, back!”

I raised my eyebrows at Sirius, who’s shoulders were shaking with silent laughter. Finally he gathered himself enough to say, “Peeves, good to see you too. But now is not the time, go both Filch.”

Much to the shock of everyone in the room, Peeves gave a slight inclination of his head and raced off.

The silence dragged on, until Professor Burbage broke it, “He can control Peeves, if I wasn’t convinced that he should stay before, I am now. Can we give him a job? He can stay forever, so long as he keeps Peeves out of my classroom.” Many of the other teachers murmured their agreement and Dumbledore chuckled.

“Perhaps,” Dumbledore said, “We’ll have to wait and see.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed. Be sure to leave comments and kudos. Let me know if you want to know my new betta’s names.


	13. Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry guys! I know, I suck. I’m working on setting aside a specific time to work on this daily, hoping to get back to the normal schedule.
> 
> Enjoy!

After the meeting ended, I walked over to Sirius and Lupin. “Thanks for believing me.” Sirius said, smiling.

“Yeah well, I’m still a little peeved that I don’t have a dog now.” I joked.

He laughed, “If you move in with me, then maybe we can fix that.”

“I can move in with you?” I asked, “Have you got a house?”

“Yes, I have a house, maybe I can be your guardian. It really depends on how the trial goes. Your parents left Remus and me to be your guardians, should anything happen to them.” Sirius said, smiling. Only then did I realize that I was smiling too, no, positively grinning from ear to ear. “I mean, that is, if you really want to.”

“Of course I want to! Are you crazy? You saw what the Dursley’s are like!” I nearly shouted.

“Are they really like that all the time?” Sirius asked, stunned.

“Yes!” Harry said, nodding vigorously.

“We’ll figure something out.” Lupin promised.

“Emma,” A voice behind me called. I turned around, to find Snape standing there. “The Headmaster has just informed me that you have been away since three in the morning. It’s eleven now,” He said, glancing at his watch. “You should go back to your dorm room, get some sleep and you might want to bring the cloak, otherwise your friends will never let you get to sleep.” Snape said, holding out the invisibility cloak for me.

“Thanks,” I said, taking it from him. Then I turned to Harry, smiling apologetically. “Yeah, er, sorry. I snuck into your dorm this morning and took the cloak.”

He shrugged, “It’s not like I had a use for it while I was sleeping.”

“I didn’t think you’d miss it.”

“Emma,” Snape said warningly.

“I’m going, I’m going,” I said with a laugh, “Don’t you have to announce to the rest of the Slytherins, that Sirius is innocent though?”

“Yes, but I have a feeling, you aren’t going to listen to me. Rather, you’ll go directly to your friends and tell them what has happened. I wouldn’t be surprised, if by the time I got there, everyone already knew.” Snape smirked. Then he added, “You’re predictable.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m just like my mother.”

Snape scrutinized me for a moment before saying, “You look like your mother, but, you are far more like your father.”

***

By the time I entered the common room, I was still trying dissect the meaning of Professor Snape’s words. But any thoughts of my parentage dispelled as soon as the Slytherins noticed that I was the one to enter.

I was immediately bombarded by questions.

“Let her breathe! Everyone sit down!” Draco hollered.

We all went to sit down along the couches.

“Okay, tell us what the hell is going on.” Pansy said.

“Sirius Black has been here, in the castle, this whole time. He’s an unregistered animagus, a big, black, dog; Shadow.” I started.

“What?” Daphne gasped.

“Yeah, so, that night at dinner, with Harry, I wanted to tell him what Draco had told me about Sirius. How Sirius had betrayed Harry’s parents, how he had been their friend, all that stuff. But I didn’t want to tell him in front of everyone so I had him come back to my the common room. But then you and Astoria came back and I knew what you would think, so I had him come up to my room. But my cousin had just sent in my map and I saw that Sirius Black was in the room with us. So I made Harry leave, which is when you ran into him in the common room. I talked to Black and-”

“You talked to Sirius Black? As in the murderer, Sirius Black!” Theo shouted. It was lucky no one else was in the common room, otherwise we would have been getting random stares.

“Yes, what was I meant to do?” I retorted, defensive.

“I don’t know, maybe get a teacher?” Millicent burst.

“Look, I wanted to talk to him, I wanted to know what he was doing here, why he hadn’t killed Harry already.” I explained.

“And?” Tracey prompted, “What did he say?”

“He told me a long story about how Peter Pettigrew was alive and had framed him for everything. He said Pettigrew was in the castle, and all Sirius wanted, was to be pardoned.” I said. “Last night, I discovered that Pettigrew was in fact in the castle, under the guise of a rat. My cats and owl caught him and brought him to me, at three this morning. So, I brought the rat, and Sirius, to Dumbledore’s office and we explained everything. Dumbledore alerted the ministry, the ministry took Pettigrew. Sirius is on parole. He will remain here, in the castle, until after the trial, maybe longer. I think that I’ll probably go to the trial, to watch, see what happens.I think I’m obligated to, since I was unknowingly abetting him this whole time. Turns out, he’s Harry’s Godfather too. This morning, at breakfast, Dumbledore sent me to collect Harry, so he could be told everything.”

“Why did Ron and Hermione go too?” Blaise asked.

“Well Ron’s got a pet rat. That rat was Pettigrew, so Ron needed to know what had happened. And those three are such good friends that Ron and Harry would just tell Hermione everything anyways.” I said.

“Are you in any trouble?” Draco asked, “For having a dog on campus, when its against the rules?”

“I’m not sure yet,” I said, thoughtful, “No one mentioned anything about being punished, but I definitely broke a half dozen rules by bringing him here.”

“Potter never seems to be punished for his shenanigans,” Pansy remarked, “So it would be hypocritical to punish you.”

The others nodded their agreement. Then something seemed to dawn on Draco. “What did you do, between finding out that Shadow was Sirius and capturing Pettigrew?”

“I locked Sirius in my room and told him to stay in his dog form, the house elves apparated directly in and out and fed him, all that stuff. And I hope you don’t mind, Draco, but I slept in your room.” I said, slightly embarrassed.

He replied, “Of course, you’re always welcome, otherwise you wouldn’t have been able to get inside.”

“Wait, then,” Greg said, speaking for the first time, “You’ve been awake since three in the morning? And the train got in late last night, so you wouldn’t been able to see that Pettigrew was here until like eleven. How long did you sleep?”

“I fell asleep at two and woke up at three, so less than an hour,” I said, and a the words came out, a yawn pushed its way out of me and the tiredness hit me, all at once. Draco slid over on the couch and I laid against him, resting my head on his lap. I propped my legs up onto the couch as well. I moved around a bit, until finally I was comfortable. As I began to drift off, I felt Draco’s hand move to my hair, running through it, over and over.

Around me, I could hear the others getting up and leaving, presumably to enjoy their day off.

Then the world faded and I drifted into a peaceful, dreamless, sleep.

***

When I woke, the entire school knew that Sirius Black was innocent and living in the castle. It was breakfast time, and consequently, the next day. I was still resting against Draco, but he had fallen asleep, his hand resting in my hair.

Carefully, I slid off of the couch and stood, stretching out my neck, back and shoulders. I hurried up to the third floor of girl’s dorms and ran into the bathing chambers. It felt good to shower, I was embarrassed to say, I hadn’t done so in three days. I brushed my teeth and redressed in my room. I grabbed all of my things for the day and was about to leave, when I noticed the pile of wrapped presents in the corner. I didn’t have the time to open everything now, so I selected the incredibly long, broom shaped package. I tore apart the paper to reveal the most beautiful broomstick I had ever seen.

I would have to thank Sirius a thousand times over for this gift.

I went back downstairs to find the couch, where Draco and I had slept, vacated. I looked around the room, but there was no sign up him. A moment later, he jogged down the boy’s staircase, his hair wet and tousled, rather attractively. A shook my head, disgusted by my thoughts. I wasn’t supposed to think my best friend was attractive, was I? I gulped and pushed away the thoughts, all together.

“Hey,” He said, “How are you feeling?”

“Well rested.” I said, smiling in spite of myself, “And you?”

“I slept well too,” He grinned, “Especially for sleeping on a couch... while sitting up.”

I snorted and his gray eyes softened.

“Breakfast?” I asked.

“Yes,” He responded and off we headed.

It was rather early, and almost no one was in the Great Hall yet. I sat down beside Draco and began loading things onto my plate. I hadn’t realized that I was so hungry, but it made sense. I hadn’t eaten anything yesterday and I had hardly eaten in the days prior, for being so worried about having Sirius Black trapped in my bedroom with some crackpot story proclaiming his innocence.

It was crazy to think that the story was true.

It was even crazier when more people began to show up and Lupin was accompanied to the staff table, by none other than Sirius Black.

Every single person in the hall kept sneaking glances at him, not very secretively though, since it was quite obvious to everyone.

I stood from the table and walked up to the staff table.

“Hey Sirius!” I greeted.

“Good morning, Emma.” He replied, smiling.

“I finally got to my Christmas presents, well actually just yours, but any who, thank you so much for the Firebolt.” I said, truly grateful.

“It was the least I could do, to try and make up for all of the time I’ve missed from both of your lives. You two fly just as well as your father did. Don’t tell him, but I think you and Harry might even be better than he was as a seventh year.” Sirius commented.

“You’re just saying that,” I said.

“No, it’s true,” Lupin said, “The two of you are fantastic.”

“Just wait until you see them without the dementors getting in the way,” Dumbledore said, his contempt with the dementors, clear in his tone, but his pride for us, just as evident.

I grinned broadly at Dumbledore. My stomach growled loudly and I joked, “I’m sorry, but I had better return to my breakfast, before I start withering away.”

I hurried back to the Slytherin table and sat back down, immediately digging into my scrambled eggs and bacon.

“What was that about?” Draco asked causally.

“Oh! I forgot to tell you, Sirius bought me a Firebolt as a thank you for believing him and a sorry for concealing himself as a dog for five months.” I said, excited.

“Really?! That’s wonderful, you’ll be able to beat out Harry, no problem now!” Draco said, just as excited.

“You’re forgetting one crucial detail, Harry is Sirius’ Godson. Sirius got one for Harry too.” I said.

“But you’ll still win, no problem. You’re the superior flyer by far.” Daphne said, sitting down across from us.

I smiled at her and for the first time in a while, I felt no tension between us.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked it, please remember to leave comments and kudos.
> 
> P.S. I got the job I applied for!!! (Which means less time to write, but I’ll be earning money!)


	14. The Trial

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah I know, I suck. Sorry, late again. Enjoy!

I was a mess of nerves in the days leading up to the trial. It was set to fall on February nineteen, a Saturday. Which meant, at least I wouldn’t be missing any classes.

The week before the trial, we had another Hogsmeade meeting. Astoria, Neville and I had arranged to meet up with Luna. During one of our many visits to the library, I had told Neville and Astoria about the spell for ear piercings. Astoria had expressed great interest in the subject and Neville thought it was going to end badly if we tried such an advanced spell. So, while Astoria and I planned to do it, with Luna’s guidance, Neville simply wanted to watch us to see if we would fail.

When Draco and I reached Hogsmeade, I told him what I was going to do, and he seemed to agree with Neville. “That will never work! You’re talking about a really advanced spell here, you’re going to end up slicing off your ear!”

“I will not!” I retorted, “It can’t be higher than fifth year.”

“Fine! Try it, I’ll be there to watch.” Draco scoffed, “Just don’t come crying when you’ve made yourself deaf.”

“Fine,” I said and we made our way to the little shop near the end of the village. Neville, Luna and Astoria were already there, waiting for us. Neville eyed Draco suspiciously, but neither said anything. “I’ve been thinking, Draco, you should pierce your ear too.”

“Ha,” He scoffed, “You’ve gone mad, if you truly think I would ever consider stabbing a hole through my ear, in order to house a metal pole, connected to a shiny rock.”

“Now that’s really quite dramatic,” Astoria laughed.

“You’re not wrong, but there are other things, you don’t need to have a stone. There are feathers too. And plants.” Luna added airily.

“You could definitely pull off a peacock feather. “ Neville joked, then seemed to realize what he had said and paled significantly.

But Draco only laughed and said, “Yes, I probably could, but I have no interest in trying it.”

“Oh I see,” I said, “You’re afraid it’ll hurt.”

“No,” I said, “I’m afraid that it’ll go wrong and you’ll end up without an ear.”

“That’s what I said!” Neville gasped.

“Then you’re the only other logical one here.” Draco said. “I’ve been trying to convince her that this is a bad idea.”

“It worked out fine for me,” Luna reminded them.

“Yes, but that was because your mother had preformed the spell, and she had completed all of her schooling and was far more advanced than any of us are.” Draco argued.

“What are you guys doing?” Daphne asked, walking over from an adjacent store with Tracey and the Ravenclaw seeker. I wasn’t sure what here name was, but she had always been rather friendly.

“We are trying to pierce our ears, but Neville and Draco think it’s a bad idea.” I said, throwing a mock glare in Draco and Neville’s direction.

“Ooo fun!” The Ravenclaw smiled, “I’ve always wanted to do that!”

“Me too!” Daphne said.

“What is wrong with these girls?” Draco muttered to Neville.

“Woah, there, insulting my girlfriend?” Asked an attractive boy who I recognized to be a sixth year Hufflepuff who happened to be Hufflepuff’s seeker. I thought his name might have been Cedric. He didn’t sound accusatory or angry, just... curious.

All we needed was Harry now, and then we would have every house’s seeker.

Draco eyed the seeker, but said nothing.

“Well, I think we ought to go in. Unless you plan on standing out here all day.” I said.

The eight of us walked inside the shop and immediately began browsing the racks for jewelry that suited us. After a few minutes I found a pair that was silver, with a Slytherin green gem with tiny snakes engraved to them. Draco had been drifting around in my general vicinity and seemed relieved that I was done.

“What?” I asked, “Are you afraid the earrings are going to fly at you and pierce your ears without your consent?”

“No,” He replied, “It’s just... a little... er, cramped in here.”

“Oh, I see,” I laughed, “You’re claustrophobic.”

“I’m clasto-what-ic?” He asked, looking at me with furrowed brows.

“Claustrophobic, it means you don’t like tight spaces,” I said, “You can wait outside, if you want, while I buy these.”

“No, it’s fine.” He said, but his voice was strained.

“Go, wait outside.” I said.

“If you insist,” He said, but he sounded relieved.

I went to the counter and bought the earrings and then hurried outside to join Draco. Luna and the other Ravenclaw were already out there. The rest of our odd group came out within the next few minutes.

“Alright, everyone ready to do this?” I asked, taking out my wand.

The others nodded. Draco, Neville and Cedric were standing off to the side, looking worried. Luna demonstrated how to hold our wands and we all mimicked her. In unison we said, “Aures perforatum!” I felt a little pinch and then rushed to slip the earring into the newly formed ear. I repeated the step on the other side and slipped in that earring as well. I looked around at the rest of the group, everyone had managed to do it successfully.

“Cho?” Cedric asked, moving beside her, “Alright there?” Ever the worried boyfriend.

“Yeah, I’m brilliant.” She responded.

I grinned at Draco, “See, I didn’t lose an ear.”

***

My hands were shaking as I entered the ministry of magic. I was terrified that somehow, Sirius would still be sent back to Azkaban.

I could see Mr. Malfoy a few rows ahead of me, but I didn’t dare make my presence known to him. Lupin sat to my left and Harry to my right. Dumbledore was on Harry’s other side. And Sirius, was sitting down in the middle, below us all, his arms and legs wrapped in chains. Peter Pettigrew was beside him, his arms and legs similarly bound.

“Peter Pettigrew, you have been accused of divulging the location of the Potter’s to Voldemort and murdering twelve muggles, as well as faking your own death and allowing an innocent man to take your place behind bars. How do you plead?”

I leaned forward in my seat, yanking on my fingers in nervous anticipation. Beside me, Harry was bouncing his leg and Lupin was clearly holding his breath.

Pettigrew’s voice shook as he said, “Guilty, to all accounts.”

It took a moment to sink in, and even then, I was so shocked that I could only blink in surprise. Sirius’s head snapped in Peter’s direction. He was obviously not expecting that answer either. Lupin sucked in a breath, Harry’s leg stilled and the whole room went into an uproar of motion and murmurs. But I only had eyes for Peter. I saw him saying something to Sirius, but I could hear none of it, and I was unable to read his lips. His chains fell from his arms and the dementors glided over, clamped his wrists in manacles, and pulled him out of site.

The chains also fell from Sirius’s wrists, yet no dementors came to take him.

Finally, silence fell once more and Fudge proclaimed, “Sirius Black, you are hereby found innocent and all charges have been dismissed.”

I sighed in relief.

A man, a few rows back and to my right, said, “That was the fastest trial I have ever attended.” His voice was low and thick, and he wore an earring. I would have to tell Draco about that. I immediately decided that I liked him.

Lupin noticed me looking at him and said, “That’s Kingsley Shacklebolt, he was the the fifth Gryffindor in our dorm. Peter, Sirius, James, him and me.”

“Was he your friend?” I asked, “Is he still?” I was really excited now. I turned my attention back to Kingsley, though I was still listening to Lupin’s words. Kingsley was talking with a witch now, they were laughing about something and heading towards the exit.

“Yes, he was our friend, but he wasn’t a part of the marauders, he was never that close with us. Most of his best friends were a few years older than us.” Lupin explained. “We’ve fallen out of touch in recent years. Most of what we had in common after Hogwarts was fighting Voldemort. And once Voldemort died, we had no reason to stay in contact with one another. I haven’t even seen him in years.”

“Maybe you should try and reconnect with him,” I offered, “I mean, he still cares enough to be here.”

Lupin nodded, “I’d better go get Sirius, we have a lot of things to figure out.” Without another word, he stood and made his way down.

Only then did I notice that Lucius Malfoy was staring at me. I smiled at him and waved. He got up and strode over to me.

“What brings you here?” He asked.

“Oh, Draco didn’t tell you?” I asked, “Well then, I accidentally was the one who brought Sirius into the castle and he had been hiding out in my dorm this entire year, so I figured I might as well see what happens to him. I was the one to discover he was innocent in the first place. Good thing, huh?”

“Yes, a good thing indeed. We wouldn’t want innocent people rotting in Azkaban.” He drawled.

“Oh, I was thinking more along the lines of not wanting death eaters running around our world, feigning innocence and evading Azkaban.” I said, eyeing him carefully for any sign of a reaction.

His face remained utterly impassive. “Yes, we wouldn’t want any of that either.”

“Right, well I must be going then, Draco and I have a lot of homework to do.” After finding out that Mr. Malfoy had been the one to plant the diary on Ginny, being around him was rather unsettling. Not to mention the fact that he had tried to murder my brother. I was glad when he nodded and walked away, leaving me in the safety Dumbledore provided.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please remember to leave me some comments and kudos! They are very much appreciated!


	15. Time Flies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, a day late. Enjoy the last chapter of this book! Book three will be started soon!

It was insane to think how fast the rest of the year flew by. All the sudden, finals were just around the corner and Quidditch was over. Slytherin had taken second, to Gryffindor, a fact Harry refused to let go of. He’d beaten me, fair and square. Ron was very smug about the victory, especially for someone who had done nothing to achieve it.

I was proud to say that Draco and Hermione no longer seemed to hold any animosity towards one another. It turned out that they had partnered up a few times during Muggle Studies when I had been in my coma. I was glad to know Draco would be able to call me over the summer, I had the feeling Petunia and Vernon wouldn’t be so fond of Latte and Tambor joining the family. And if they were angry about the unexpected additions, they weren’t likely to let Tambor send letters back and forth weekly.

Our Muggle Studies end of year exam went by in a blur. Hermione was done first, then me, a couple minutes later. Draco was the third to finish. It was a good thirty more minutes before other people began to hand in their tests.

Once everyone had finished, Professor Burbage announced, “Your homework for the summer will be very simple. I want you each to partake in ten muggle activities and document them in a journal. Then, when you return to school, you will present your top three activities to the class. You can complete these activities in groups if you would like. I sincerely hope each and every one of you will continue on with this class.”

Draco, Hermione, and I walked briskly from the room. “So, what do you think?” Draco asked, “Are we going to keep going?”

“I think I will,” I said, “It’s quite fun and I’m still learning things.”

“Okay, then I will too.” Hermione and Draco both said at the same time. The three of us laughed. I was glad to see Draco and Hermione continuing to get along so well. I really enjoyed both of their company and I just wanted all of my friends to get along with one another.

The rest of the morning was spent going over our answers and trying to determine what we had received on every exam. Hermione was especially anxious to receive her grades. And shockingly enough, of the three of us, she did the worst.

Draco and I both received outstandings in every subject, and Hermione did as well, aside of Defense Against the Dark Arts, in which she received an exceeds expectations.

The morning we would be leaving on the Hogwarts Express, an article in the Daily Prophet caught everyone’s attention. It made my heart stop dead in my chest, and a couldn’t move, couldn’t even blink.

Peter Pettigrew had escaped Azkaban. He had likely managed to slip through the bars as a rat, just as Sirius had done, ten months prior.

Silently I slid the paper over to Draco and he read over it swiftly.

“Oh no,” Daphne murmured, and I saw that she was bent over her own copy of the Daily Prophet.

I gulped and stood up.

“Let me guess,” Draco whispered, “You’re going over to tell Potter.” It wasn’t a question.

“You know I have to.” He merely nodded and turned his attention back to his plate.

But Daphne stood too and offered, “I can tell him.”

I sat back down, as long as he found out, I didn’t care who brought the information. “Thanks.”

She strode across the hall to the Gryffindor’s table and seated herself beside Harry. I watched as she slid the paper in front of him. He bent his head to read it, Hermione and Ron leaned over to do the same.

I turned back to my food and began pushing it around with my fork, sneaking periodic glances at Daphne and Harry.

“So, I was thinking,” Draco began, pulling my attention from my brother. “The Quidditch World Cup is going to be nearby this summer. Do you want to come with me? Before hand you can stay at my house and we can travel to the muggle world to do the Muggle Studies homework. Maybe we could even go where Hermione lives and she can show us some of the things in the area.”

“There is a Quidditch World Cup?” I asked, shocked that I had never heard of it before now.

“Yes, remember I showed you the previous game on your mini field?” Draco replied patiently.

“Oh yeah, I remember now,” I said, thinking back to the fantastic match I had witnessed a few mere months ago. “I would love to go with you, I might have to sneak out from my aunt and uncle though.”

“Good, I’ll call you to figure out the details, dates and things. You’ll have to write down your telephone number for me and then once I purchase a telephone, I can tell you the number, so you can call me.” He looked so excited, so proud of himself, that in that moment, it became unbearable to keep my secret from him any longer.

My eyes flitted up to Sirius, who was sitting at the staff table, very close to Remus. And my suspicion that they were together, as something more than friends, was reignited. I stared intently at Sirius, trying to discern whether or not he was too busy to pop over and tell Draco the secret.

“Father could probably get us seats in the top box, that would give us the best view.” Draco mused pulling me back to him. _His father_. He was the son of the man who tried to kill my brother. And while I trusted Draco, if he knew the secret, and Sirius were to die, then Draco could slip up, accidentally tell his father, and then where would we be? I was wary of Draco’s father and I thought he might have even been a death eater turning Voldemort’s reign of terror.

And I knew I couldn’t risk it. Draco was my best friend, but he was with his father far too much for my liking. I mentally chastised my momentary lapse of judgement and said, “That would be wonderful.”

He grinned at me and a pang went through my heart. I wanted to tell him. I knew I couldn’t. But I wanted to so badly, it hurt.

***

I was standing in Snape’s office, the train would be leaving in less than an hour.

“So, what is it you needed to ask me about?” Snape asked kindly.

“I just,” I didn’t know how to say any of this, “I think I want to tell Draco the truth, about Harry and I.”

“I see,” Snape said, “You don’t know if you should.”

“I think his father was a death eater and if Voldemort comes back, I think he might be one again.” I said, “So I don’t know if I can trust Draco with that secret.”

“I believe that is correct, Lucius was in fact a death eater, though he claimed to have been under the Imperius Curse, I think he would go back to the Dark Lord, if given the opportunity.” Snape said.

“How do you know Lucius wasn’t under the Imperius Curse?” I asked.

Snape raised the sleeve of his left arm and I sucked in a breath at the sight, “Because I was a death eater too.”

_Stay calm, stay calm._

“So, what changed.” I was proud that my voice didn’t so much as waver.

“Your mother was targeted, or rather your brother was. But parents protect their children so it was the same as putting a target on both of your parent’s backs. She was my best friend, you know that though, you’ve seen the pictures. As soon as he started planning to attack her, I switched sides, became Dumbledore’s spy. You’re Draco’s best friend. If Voldemort were to come back and find out who you are, you would be targeted. Draco would do anything to prevent that from happening, he would keep your secret if Sirius died. I’m not saying you need to tell him now, but when you want to, I think he’ll deserve to know.”

“Thank you.” I turned to leave the room.

“Emma,” I paused, “If the muggles give you any trouble, let me know, I’ll fix it.” That should have been my first clue, that something had been off.

***

“Listen, Emma, Harry, I’m sorry.” Sirius began. We were sitting in a compartment on the Hogwarts Express, headed home for the summer.

No, no, no. This couldn’t be good.

“With Peter escaped, and the prophecy Trelawney told you-” Sirius continued.

“Hang on, what prophecy.” I interrupted.

“When I was taking my exam for divination, Professor Trelawney made a prediction, about Voldemort’s servant escaping and returning to him and bringing him back.” Harry explained.

“What?” I breathed. My head was spinning. Peter was going to bring Voldemort back! Why weren’t the others more freaked out about this?

“Em,” Harry said, wrapping an arm around my shoulders, “It’s alright, it’ll be alright. Not all prophecies come to pass.”

“And we are going to do everything we can to keep this one from coming to fruition.” Lupin promised me.

“But that means, Remus and I will not be home full time. We likely will hardly be home at all, which means-” Sirius continued, only to be cut off by me again.

“We have to go back to the Dursley’s,” I murmured solemnly.

“I’m sorry.” Sirius sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose with his forefinger and thumb.

“And if you find him?” I prodded.

“If we find him,” Lupin began, “Then it’s a different story.”

I nodded slowly, “Then find him, find him fast.”

***

The train pulled into the station and I felt as though I might cry. I had been foolish to think Harry and I would be able to escape the Dursleys. Snape was right, I would be returning to them after all. How had he known before me though? Had he talked to Sirius or Lupin? It wasn’t likely, if their previous interactions were anything to go on.

When I stepped onto the platform, the tears nearly spilled over, I barely managed to hold them back.

I hugged Daphne goodbye first. Then Astoria, Pansy, Tracey, Blaise, Theo, Millicent.

I wove between people until I found Neville and Luna. I hugged them too. Cho was nearby so I said goodbye to her and shook Cedric’s hand. Then I reached Ginny, Ron, Hermione, the twins. I hugged each of them in turn, even Ron. I murmured to Harry, “I’ll meet you outside.” Before weaving my way through the throng of people once more to find the person I would miss the most.

And there he was, standing with his parents, waiting for me. I hugged him tightly and he did the same, I thought my ribs might crack. I thought I might never let go.

But then I did and we parted.

“If anything happens,” He whispered, “Anything at all, you call me. I’ll be there.”

I nodded and turned from him.

As I pulled my trunk into the parking lot, the tears finally started to fall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that’s a wrap folks! Haha, just kidding! I’ve got at least five more books planned. The next book should have the first chapter posted tomorrow! I have lots of ideas for it. Please be sure to leave comments and kudos and stay tuned for more to come.


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